As an aspiring youth running back attending Poway High football games, Nick Ricciardulli took special note of the traditional role of a workhorse in the Titans backfield.

SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune Poway senior running back Nick Ricciardulli has rushed for a school-record 1,736 yards on 251 carries this season.

“I always knew that there's a guy at Poway, a guy who's going to get the ball,” said Ricciardulli, a senior in his third varsity season. “I just wanted to work hard, so I could be that guy one day.”

From the stands, Ricciardulli watched Jason Relyea run the ball. In his freshman year, he got a closer look at Brandon Sullivan after joining the varsity for the postseason. Ricciardulli became the mainstay last year as the Titans won the San Diego Section Division I championship with a 12-0 record.

This fall, Ricciardulli has set a school season rushing record with 1,736 yards on 251 carries. The 5-foot-7, 166-pound Ricciardulli has also assumed a starting job at cornerback, has returned kickoffs and even added a midseason assignment on the punt-rush unit.

“Absolutely, he's doing it all for us this year,” Titans coach Damian Gonzalez said. “He's a (standout) player, and you want those guys on the field.”

Ricciardulli has helped lead Poway (7-3) back into the playoffs. The Titans earned a first-round bye this week before hosting a quarterfinal game Nov. 28.

Ricciardulli took up football with the help of older brother Guy. Over the years, they played backyard ball together and participated in Pop Warner youth football.

The brothers became high school teammates for a season when Nick was elevated from the freshman team for the 2005 playoffs. It provided early adaptation to the varsity level when Nick went against the first-team defense in practice on the scout team.

“That got me started,” Nick said. “It was definitely something that gave me a lot of experience. I remember all that speed on defense.”

Since then, opposing defenses have been dealing with the swiftness and shiftiness of Nick, who inherited No. 11 from his brother. Guy was the Defensive Player of the Year at Humboldt State as a sophomore this season.

Last season, Nick Ricciardulli rushed for 1,442 yards and 21 touchdowns on 253 carries, including scoring runs of 34 yards and 3 yards in the Titans' 21-7 victory over Rancho Buena Vista in the section final.

Heading into this season, Ricciardulli devoted himself to the squad's off-season weight training as one of five returning starters from the title team.

“I wanted to be a team leader,” Ricciardulli said. “All the guys look at me, so I knew that I had to hit the weights hard.”

Ricciardulli, who has rushed for more than 200 yards in three games this season, needed just nine games to break the old school record of 1,536 yards in a season set in 2005 by Sullivan, who plays for San Diego State.

“Nick's a definite leader,” Titans senior guard Mitch Meyer said. “He's always the guy to get the team fired up at the beginning of the game. He doesn't talk too much, but his energy level is always way up. He leads by example.”

In that way, he's still following past Poway players.