PREP FOOTBALL : Edison Loses First Game of Season : Chargers Seem to Be Afflicted With Case Of Triskaidekaphobia

The number 13 has long been out of favor with superstitious sea captains, owners of race horses and builders of hotels.

The latest victim of such triskaidekaphobia was the Edison High School football team, which had not lost in 12 games dating to the second game of the 1985 Sunset League schedule.

Game No. 13, however, lived up to its ominous billing Friday. Edison looked jinxed as it suffered a 21-7 upset to Santa Monica at Cap Sheue Field in Huntington Beach.

In the third quarter, when the normally reliable Chargers (4-1) had lost three fumbles, a frustrated player hollered from the sidelines, “Play Edison football.”

He had a point. The team in green was playing football, but it bore little resemblance to the sort associated with the county’s second-ranked team and the Sunset League and Big Five Conference defending co-champions.

Let Coach Dave White tell it: “We dropped passes, we didn’t block. . . . Our defense didn’t really play badly, but our offense and special teams cost us the game.”

Indeed. The Chargers had lost only one fumble all season, but quarterback Mike Henderson fumbled on Edison’s first possession, setting the tone for a night of frustration. On their second possession, the Chargers fumbled a pitchout.

On Edison’s third possession--the fact that it was still somehow a scoreless game said something about the Viking offense--Charger punter Wayne DuPlantis couldn’t control a bad snap and Santa Monica’s Nick Satriano tackled him at the Edison eight-yard line.

Four plays later, Viking quarterback Randy Bongard scored on a one-yard run and Matt Pringle’s kick gave the Vikings (3-1) an unexpected 7-0 lead. There was more strange luck coming their way.

With 1:30 left in the second quarter, Viking team captain Eric Etebari blind-sided Henderson, jarring the ball loose. Defensive end Corwin Bailey grabbed it and ran 64 yards for a touchdown.

Trailing 14-0 to a team they had hardly heard of, Edison rallied with an 80-yard drive in the last minute of the half, helped by Henderson’s 22-yard run, a 15-yard penalty for a late hit by Santa Monica, and passes of 14 yards to Dan Hughes and 10 yards to Bill Trujillo.

Tailback Kaleaph Carter, who had one of his least productive games gained just 59 yards in 17 carries, scored on a one-yard run over the middle.

“The mark of a great football team like Edison’s is that they could have something demoralizing like that fumble happen to them and still come back and score,” Viking Coach Tebb Kusserow said. “We had some question in our mind whether we were a great football team.

“We thought that if we could come out after the half and stop them on their first series--when Edison would be pretty excited--then perhaps we could be a good football team.”

On the first possession of the third quarter, the Chargers wound up stalled at their own 37 with a fourth and two, and were forced to punt.

Kusserow called the victory the most significant for the Vikings since 1981, when they won the Coastal Conference title in 1981 by beating Long Beach Poly, 21-8.

White said, “They came ready to play and we didn’t. They played very aggressively. The team that wanted this game the most, won it.

When asked why the Chargers might have been psychologically unprepared to play hard against Santa Monica, he replied, “We were 4-0, we’d had so many big games in a row and they (the Vikings) were not from our area. They were hungry and we weren’t. But maybe this is good. Maybe we needed this to wake up for league.”

The Chargers dominated the first half offensive statistics. Edison had 203 yards of total offense to the Vikings 34 yards. Henderson had completed 6 of 12 passes for 112 yards, while the Viking quarterback, Bongard, was 1 of 5 for 13 yards. The leading Viking rusher, Mark Jackson, had 10 carries for 19 yards.

But Edison’s offense went into hibernation after halftime. After earning nine first downs in the first half to the Vikings’ one, Edison got only one first down--on a penalty--in the second half. The Chargers gained just 17 yards of offense in the second half.