Big Five Conference : Fountain Valley Turns Driving Rain Into Runaway Win

Two months ago, the Fountain Valley High School football team was 1-4.

Friday in Veterans Stadium, the Barons defeated Long Beach Wilson, 31-6, in a semifinal of the Big Five playoffs. Which means Fountain Valley will play Fontana in the Big Five final Friday.

Is this progress or what?

“I got to admit, I didn’t think we would be this far,” said Mike Milner, Fountain Valley coach.

But the Barons went 5-0 in the Sunset League to win the league championship. Last week, they defeated No. 2-seeded Bishop Amat in the quarterfinals.

“I thought we’d be competitive in league. I thought we could win the Sunset League,” Milner said. “But, no, I didn’t expect us to be here.”

Actually, if Milner would have had his druthers, Friday’s game would have never got started.

A driving rain raised some doubts whether the game would be played, especially with Milner, whose passing offense figured to suffer in the wind and the thundershowers.

But the decision was up to host Long Beach Wilson, which operates the run-oriented double wing-T.

The game started right on time.

“I didn’t think the game was playable,” Milner said. “I thought the semifinals should be played in better conditions. But it was up to them.”

Once the game got started, there seemed no stopping Fountain Valley. The Barons had scored three touchdowns to lead, 21-0, midway through the second quarter.

The rain had, for the most part, ceased. And the strong wind that was left was not strong enough to slow down the left arm of Fountain Valley quarterback David Henigan, who completed 9 of 17 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown.

After missing on his first three attempts, Henigan completed a 68-yard pass play to Mike Osborn. That completion set up Courtney Dubar’s four-yard touchdown run. Derek Mahoney’s conversion kick put Fountain Valley ahead, 7-0, with 3:23 left in the first quarter.

Dunbar helped put the Barons ahead, 14-0, when he scored his second touchdown on a three-yard run with 8:54 left in the half.

Dubar rushed for 67 yards in 17 carries.

Fountain Valley’s other running back, Derek Tuescher, scored on a 48-yard pass play from Henigan with 3:05 left in the half. The Barons led, 21-0, at that point, regulating suspense in Veterans Stadium to listening to the public address announcer struggle to pronounce names such as Tuescher and Baron defensive end Reza Mehdizadeh.

Mehdizadeh’s name, in one form or another, was called often Friday night as the Fountain Valley defense seemed to have little trouble stifling Wilson’s tricky wing-T.

The Bruins (8-4) managed only 121 yards on the ground, and scored their only touchdown on a 30-yard run by Patrick Scott late in the second quarter.

Scott, who gained 100 yards in 12 carries, accounted for most of Wilson’s offense.

“The coaches really worked with us surging into the gaps,” Mehdizadeh said. “We worked hard all week on stopping this offense. It really paid off. I thought our defensive line played great.”

Put more succinctly by Milner, who seemed less than impressed with the wing-T: “We took that wing-T and sent it back to Delaware, where it came from.”

Milner referred to the fact that the wing-T was popularized by University of Delaware coach Harold (Tubby) Raymonds.

Delaware is a long way away. Of course, two months ago, it seemed a lot closer than Fountain Valley’s chances of making it to the Big Five final.