Seven times the El Dorado (Placentia, Calif.) High defense buried her son Sean under a pile of black-and-gold jerseys and a wave of hostile intent.

Five times Anthony Laurenzi, the Orange County defensive player of the year, came roaring in from the blind side to lay on a lickin’ on the thin junior left-handed quarterback from Dana Hills High.

And if Maureen Schroeder didn’t hide her head in her hands in the 10-0 loss that painful September night in 2007, well, she wasn’t about to in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum last Saturday on national television, either.

"Football," she said, "is a tough game."

And, as University of Hawaii football fans are coming to learn, these Schroeders are some tough people.

Sean endured five sacks and many more wallops than that in debuting in the 49-10 loss to top-ranked Southern California. The way he stood in and kept firing, especially in crucial third-down situations, moved UH coach Norm Chow to marvel at Monday’s press conference, "I think we found ourselves a quarterback. He’s a tough bugger now. He took a licking and he got up and he got up and he got up … and he didn’t complain."

Complain?

That, his family will tell you, was about the last thing their son would have done as long as he could still draw a breath. "The reality," Maureen points out, "is that a lot of people would have traded places with him."

They know this because for the last three seasons Sean would have been the one raising his hand, eager to make the swap and play pinata rather than ride the pine.

AFTER THREE YEARS of a bench view at Duke, where he played exactly three plays and threw zero passes, Sean wasn’t coming out of his first college start until Chow or an ambulance crew came for him. And Chow maintains unless bones were protruding he wasn’t bringing the hook. "Nope, nope and nope," Chow said. "We were sticking with him."

Make no mistake about it, the 6-foot, 3-inch, 200-pound Schroeder is in this for more than a purple heart and tough-guy accolades. He also showed he could move the ball and the Warriors, completing 24 of 39 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown.

"Once he settled down, I thought the second half he controlled the tempo of the game," Chow said. "I think he did a nice job and made some nice throws. He threw it right in there and made some plays. Our goal every game is to be at least 40 percent on third down (conversions). That’s not easy — and he finished at 43.8."

If nothing else, the opener has established that "we don’t need to worry about Sean Schroeder," Chow said. "He was what we hoped he could be. We just need to shore up some of his protection."

One week into this 12-game season, Chow says, "(Schroeder) is our guy. We’re going to live and die with him."

By virtue of his performance, Schroeder’s already proven he is willing to live or die with them.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.