Passers Show Their Winning Hands : Notre Dame: Fiery Greg Andrachick has blazed a new trail by sparking the Knights to their first postseason win.

It is said history repeats itself, but in the case of Notre Dame High’s football team, history has been reduced to a gut course: The school has not won a postseason game since opening in 1947.

Or had not won, until the fourth quarter of a Southern Section Division VII playoff opener last week, when Greg Andrachick dived across the goal line on a three-yard bootleg to defeat Righetti, 10-3.

It was a revolution No. 9, so to speak.

How appropriate for Andrachick, who wears No. 9, to fake the handoff to Errol Small and take what proved to be a historic plunge. Small, who has rushed for 1,117 yards and scored 21 touchdowns, was an obvious choice for the carry. But Andrachick, a senior quarterback, has become the catalyst of Notre Dame’s offense, which averaged 31 points a game in building a 10-1 record.

The image of Andrachick is emblazoned in the memory of those coaches who once viewed him as a forgotten man in the Knights’ offense. Beating Notre Dame, they have found, requires beating Andrachick.

“We didn’t feel that way up until we played them,” said Harvard Coach Gary Thran, whose team held Small to 43 yards but lost to the Knights, 42-0. In that game, Andrachick completed 12 of 19 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns.

“He really took over that game for them when we stopped Errol,” Thran said. “He does not make a mistake. He will not do anything that will hurt the team. When he decides to do something with the ball, it will not be negative.”

Andrachick will have plenty of chances to do something positive tonight when Notre Dame plays at San Marino, the defending division champion, in a second-round game.

As he has done in earlier games, Andrachick will draft a list of nine specific goals for himself. He chooses nine points to correspond with his jersey number. Many of his previous goals begin with “Do not,” such as “Do not pitch the ball while being tackled,” and “Do not run straight up.”

Fortunately, Andrachick doesn’t wear a higher number. He is accomplished at so many skills that he would rapidly run out of “Do nots” for his list.

For instance, Andrachick and center Joe Vanek have fumbled just one exchange in four seasons and, by Andrachick’s recollection, he has never bobbled an exchange with a running back.

He also has one of the Valley’s lowest interception ratios (one interception for every 26 passes) and highest yards-per-completion average (17.5 yards). He has passed for 1,135 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Andrachick leads in deed and has the charisma to whip teammates into a frenzy. “He doesn’t get half the credit he deserves. He really runs the offense,” Vanek said. “In the huddle when you’re down, you’re not looking at Errol to bring you up, you’re looking at Greg. He takes over. He’s usually the one smiling and clapping.”

No pushover, Andrachick was even booted from practice last month for berating a lineman during sprints. Friends say they like his rough and feisty attitude.

Well, sometimes they like it.

During a junior varsity game against St. Francis two years ago, Andrachick’s line, weary from crouching, did not appreciate his prolonged snap count. They told him so, but to no avail.

“He was a bit too strong willed,” Vanek said. “So we broke him. We let him get pounded three times in a row. After that game, he had new-found respect for us.”

Such jarring episodes are rare for Andrachick. He has learned to survive running out of the pocket and enjoys his journeys into the unknown.

“Most quarterbacks drop back and when the rush comes, that’s it,” Andrachick said. “For me, that’s where it begins. I feel like a Randall Cunningham.

“When I get out of the pocket, I can throw or run. I get a lot more on the ball. I’m a lot more accurate. I can see things better. My strength is when I get flushed out.”

But Andrachick, who also plays baseball, is finding that college recruiters are not knocking at his door. At 6 feet, 170 pounds, he may be speedy but he’s not the archetypal quarterback. A Northern Arizona University coach called, but Andrachick said he could wind up playing for an area junior college.

“I think the kid’s a great competitor,” said Glendale College Coach John Cicuto, a Notre Dame alumnus who has seen three Knights’ games this season. “I think he’s a real good potential junior college quarterback.”

Cicuto likes the fact that Andrachick will snap back at anyone short of Chuck Norris.

“I think quarterbacks have to be a little cocky,” he said. “Those guys lead you to big wins over big teams. If a kid is cocky but he works hard at it, then that’s fine.”

But tonight, Andrachick will not be thinking about life after Notre Dame. And selecting a college will not be on his list of nine goals.

“I’m going to sit down with my coach and talk to him about that,” he said. “But right now, that’s like the least important thing.”

Andrachick has more pressing concerns. History, being one.

“They always talk about that team with Tim Foli on it,” Andrachick said. (Foli was an All-Southern Section quarterback for Notre Dame in the late 1960s before embarking on a lengthy professional baseball career.) “It’s nice that now they’re going to talk about us--hopefully, the team with me on it and Errol--and all the other guys. We’ll erase that other team.

“We’ll be the best team there.”