ORANGE COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL : Sunset League : Barons Fend Off the Oilers : Fountain Valley Stops Huntington Beach Bid

Fountain Valley scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and survived a furious Huntington Beach rally to beat the Oilers, 31-27, in a wild Sunset League game before 4,000 at Sheue Field Friday night.

Time ran out with the Oilers at the Barons’ eight-yard line.

“This was our biggest game in the last two years,” Fountain Valley coach Mike Milner said after the Barons (3-4, 2-0) erased an 11-point deficit on a pair of touchdown passes by David Henigan.

“We came out and did what we had to do and we kept our poise,” Milner said. “That’s the mark of a team that’s getting better, a team that’s in contention for the Sunset League championship.”

What Fountain Valley had to do in the fourth quarter was throw the ball and Henigan couldn’t have done it much better. The junior quarterback completed 12 of 15 attempts in the final period, including touchdown passes of 4 yards to Bob Kostich and 19 yards to Mike Osborne. Henigan and Osborne also teamed up on a two-point conversion that eventually forced Huntington Beach to try for a winning touchdown in the closing moments instead of a tying field goal.

The clinching pass to Osborne culminated a 70-yard drive that took just 45 seconds. On the drive, Henigan completed four of five attempts.

Still, Huntington Beach (4-3, 2-0) refused to give up. The Oilers took advantage of two big Fountain Valley plays, a face-mask penalty on a quarterback sack and a pass interference with no time showing on the clock, to move down to the Fountain Valley eight-yard line. But Eric Pettinato’s desperation pass into an end zone swarming with Baron defenders fell incomplete.