The overtime portion of Mater Dei's 46-43 football victory over Carson on Wednesday confused many people.

We are used to a tiebreaker overtime system by which Team A gets the ball on Team B's 25-yard line, Team A can get first downs, and then Team B has the opportunity to match or surpass the points accumulated by Team A until one team comes out ahead.

That is the tiebreaker system used in the CIF-Southern Section, of which Orange County high schools are members. But this overtime system was the one used by CIF-Los Angeles City Section rules, because Carson, an L.A. City Section school, was the home team.

At Mater Dei-Carson, Team A was given possession at Team B's 10 after a coin toss determined which team would be able to select going first on offense or on defense. When the game was tied after the first overtime sequence, the coin-flip loser had the option of selecting offense or defense first. When the game remained tied after the second OT sequence, first options for offense/defense were alternated for each subsequent OT sequence until one team outscored the other.

That overtime procedure is really more than an L.A. City rule. It is the National Federation of State High School Associations rule. The CIF-Southern Section is one of the few groups in the nation that does not completely follow the National Federation OT procedure, although CIF-SS is a member of the National Federation.

The National Federation rule book provides the 10-yard line OT procedure as a suggested procedure but, as is stated in the book, the procedure "may be … rejected, in whole or in part, by each member state association," which CIF-SS is.

There as some confusion in the early going of OT on Wednesday. At the midfield huddle of Mater Dei and Carson coaches and team captains and game officials, the head official stated extra-point kicks and two-point conversions would be excluded from the OT procedure.

The refs realized, just before OT began, that they erred

"We're ready to rock," Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson said, "and one of the official runs up to me and says, 'We made a mistake. Extra points and two-point conversions will be allowed.' I just said, 'OK.'"

Rollinson could laugh a little after relaying that conversion, partly because Mater Dei won and partly because that was his 20th season opener. He long ago accepted that in high school football opening games interesting surprises can strike players, coaches and referees.

Don't be surprised if you see this 10-yard line overtime procedure again in December.

While the 25-yard line procedure, during which teams can accumulate first downs, will be in place for CIF-SS playoff games, games in leagues that provide for OT in their league rules, and in CIF-SS nonleague games in which the coaches agree beforehand to play OT if needed, the 10-yard line procedure will be the one used for CIF State Championship Games.

Personally, the 25-yard line procedure is superior.

Taking a brief look around Orange County high school sports:

•Yours truly will be doing the "FryDay Night" blogging again at ocvarsity.com on Friday nights. I will be blogging updates from the game I am at - St. Paul-Servite, tonight - and blogging updates from games all over the county.

•The first football media poll will be in the Register on Tuesday, and at ocvarsity.com Monday afternoon. It will be a top 10 poll of 10 media members. It's not a Fryer top 10, although the 11-25 rankings will be.

•Regarding the two Mission Viejo football players who did not play in the team's game last week in Hawaii because of allegations they violated team and school rules on the trip: No team, no school, no community is immune to the dark side of adolescence.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com