CARLSBAD -- Some Carlsbad High School football players is bringing its winning defensive ways to a community football team in a mentoring arrangement that could pay for years to come.

Players on the Raging Lancers Pop Warner football team are getting a seasonlong education in a complex defensive plan that has helped lift Carlsbad High to back-to-back CIF San Diego Division I championships. Until last weekend, the Lancers had not lost in 25 games.

High school defensive back Max Miller and lineman Giovanni Lapp coached defensive players in a practice Wednesday at Carlsbad Village Academy. Their soft words, praise, gentle reminders, and just plain "hanging out" contrasted starkly with the cliche of the screaming, spitting, forever scowling football coach.

"Hey, you gotta make those tackles," Lapp chided one linebacker in a soft voice suitable for talking to puppies.

The unusual connection came about when the high-schoolers heard that Charles Daniel, who had worked with many of the boys as a volunteer speed coach on Sunday mornings, had landed his first head coaching gig with the Pop Warner team. The boys asked if they could help, Daniel said.

The Raging Lancers may be benefiting already from the crash course in the "3-5-3 defense," a basic strategy consisting of three lineman, five linebackers and three defensive backs.

The team carries its undefeated 6-0 record into tournament play this weekend, said assistant coach Larry Cisneros. Their opponents have scored just once -- a touchdown set up by a fumble at their own 17-yard line. The Raging Lancers have scored 128 points and allowed only 8.

The older boys have taught the younger players about 15 of the 40 defensive options. Any one of the five linebackers can blitz on any play, Cisneros said.

"These (opposing) linemen don't know who to block because everybody's coming from every direction," said Lapp. "It's a thing of beauty."

"All in all, it's a pretty reliable defense," Cisneros said.

Daniel put it this way: "We can't get beat when we can't get scored on."

As the middle-schoolers grow up into high school football, they will already be three years ahead of the game, which could spell more success for Carlsbad High.

"It's going to be huge," Max said. "They'll already know the defense and be familiar with all of the positions."

Three days a week, the student mentors finish high school football practice at about 5:15 p.m. and hustle over for the last hour of the Raging Lancers practice -- a time dedicated to defensive work, Cisneros said.

Lapp said he's volunteering his time and expertise because he has a debt to repay to the football coaches who showed him the way to responsibility, dedication and camaraderie through the game. He said his age helps him pass those ideals on to the 14- and 15-year-old Pop Warner players.

"It's more of a friendship based on teaching rather than the dad kind of coaching thing." said Lapp, a nose guard for the older Lancers. "I think I get into their minds better peer to peer."

The high school kids also run the defense during games each Saturday. Cisneros tells Miller, Lapp, and his son, Malcolm Cisneros, what he sees the opposing offense doing.

"I break down the issue and they scheme it out," Cisneros said. "The kids are making the calls. Defensively, we (coaches) don't do anything, which is kind of funny."

Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com.