YOUNG MEN, NEW BUDDIES HUSKIES LINEMEN DASTE, ROGERS ENJOY GROWING FRIENDSHIP.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

It's a five-minute drive, tops. Six inches in the Thomas Guide. Several long punts with the wind at your back.

That's the distance separating Dominic Daste's boyhood home in San Dimas and Matt Rogers' residence in Glendora. Just head west on Gladstone Street, cross underneath the 210 Freeway and make a right at Oakdale Memorial Park onto Grand Avenue. Easy as that.

Watch Daste and Rogers clown around after one of Washington's Rose Bowl practices at USC, and it seems to make perfect sense: The old pals will see their college careers conclude in the oldest, grandest of bowl games, and just 25 minutes from home, to boot.

``It's a dream come true to end a career like this,'' Daste says wistfully of the 10-1 Huskies' New Year's Day date with Purdue.

``A storybook ending,'' Rogers adds.

Just one problem: Daste didn't know Rogers the first 21 years of his life.

``I guess we had some mutual friends, and that's it,'' Daste said.

Daste prepped at Damien High in La Verne, Rogers at South Hills of West Covina. While Daste signed with Washington out of high school, Rogers went to Citrus College, then Iowa for a season before landing in Seattle for his senior year.

Now, these affable behemoths are the top two reserves on an offensive line Rogers calls ``the best in the nation.''

If left tackle Elliot Silvers and right guard Chad Ward are the All-Pacific-10, NFL shoo-ins of the group, then Daste and Rogers are the survivors. Daste, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound guard, played in eight games as a true freshman in 1996, but broke his left foot so severely, he sat out the `97 season as a medical redshirt.

He returned to play in all 11 games in `98, but the pain in his foot made him question whether he wanted to complete his last two years of eligibility.

``Dominic Daste, when I arrived, wasn't going to play anymore,'' second-year Washington coach Rick Neuheisel said.

But Daste thought better of it, saying he made a commitment to finish what he started with his linemates. He started four of the last five games in `99 and got considerable playing time this season, earning a game ball for his work against All-America defensive lineman Andre Carter of Cal.

``Anytime you have a championship season, you can go back and look at all kinds of kids who made significant contributions,'' Neuheisel said. ``Both those guys fit that category.''

They've blended seamlessly into a tight-knit unit Daste describes as ``salty, because we're like a bunch of old men. We hate each other but love each other.''

At first, everybody just hated Rogers.

After two stellar years at Citrus, Rogers was thrown into the fray at Iowa, starting most of his junior year. But after coach Hayden Fry retired following the `98 season, offensive-line coach Frank Verducci was not retained, and Rogers said the new regime wouldn't allow him to redshirt and rest his aching back.

So he left, a football orphan with just one year of eligibility remaining.

Fortunately for him, Citrus coach John Rome was a graduate assistant at UCLA the same time Neuheisel was an assistant there; a couple of phone calls later, Rogers was Washington-bound, but he'd have just one season to try to crack a veteran offensive line.

``I told Matt what the parameters were,'' Neuheisel said. ``He just wanted the chance to come to the Pac-10 and play for a championship.''

So his father, Tim, drove to Iowa and picked up his son. They arrived in Seattle at the end of summer two-a-day practices. The Huskies, grimy and worn out from two-a-days, eyed Rogers with his perfectly coiffed hair, polo shirt and jeans shorts and groaned.

But Rogers quickly fit in with the Huskies' Animal House line crew - ``We didn't like him at first, but he grows on you like fungus,'' Daste says - and his playing time gradually increased this season. He backs up Wes Call at right tackle and plays on the kickoff and kick-return units.

Next June, Rogers will graduate with a sociology degree, Daste with a geography degree. Rogers said he'll give pro football a shot. Even though Neuheisel said Daste has a chance to play professionally, Daste said he'll pass.

``I understand the NFL is a business; they don't want damaged goods,'' said Daste, who wears two gigantic knee braces and ample ankle tape.

The pair plan to maintain their friendship; they already hang out together when both are home, even though the San Dimas Lounge doesn't exactly meet their night-life standards.

Down the road, they might even try to coach high school football together. If that happens, the ribbing may never cease.

``I told him, I might let him be my offensive-line coach.'' Rogers said.

ROSE BOWL

Purdue vs. Washington

Jan. 1, 2001

TV: Ch. 7, 2 p.m.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Matt Rogers arrived in Washington via two years at Citrus College, one season at Iowa and Iowa coach Hayden Fry's retirement.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer

(2) Dominic Daste has overcome numerous injuries to star on the Washington offensive line. The Rose Bowl will be his final game.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer