DIVISION I : Edison Fizzles, 44-19, Against Rubidoux and Secret Weapon
Edison High School’s dream of winning a Southern Section championship fizzled fast Friday night, as Rubidoux shocked the Chargers with a 44-19 victory at Orange Coast College.
Rubidoux, which entered the game with a 4-6 record, never seemed the underdog, taking a 28-13 halftime lead and winning with impressive running, intense defense and a secret weapon named La Salle Hughey.
Hughey, who missed three games this year with an ankle injury and was nowhere in the Rubidoux game films which Edison used to prepare, scored three touchdowns on his first three carries on runs of 41, 56, and 50 yards.
But Hughey was just one of Rubidoux’s weapons. Tracy Harris rushed for 146 yards on 26 carries, scoring two touchdowns, and Marc Lewis added 76 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
The loss overshadowed an impressive passing performance by Edison quarterback Josh Gingrich, who completed 27 of 47 passes for 394 yards and two touchdowns. Gingrich, whose output tied Andy Bielanski (Savanna, 1967) for the county’s fourth-best single-game yardage, was also intercepted twice.
“I can’t believe (Rubidoux was) 4-6, I’ll tell you that,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “We didn’t stop them. . . . They had four options and we didn’t stop any of them. They just whipped us. We came ready to play, though.”
But was Edison, seeded fourth in the division, prepared for such an offensive onslaught from an underdog team? It’s doubtful. The shocked looks on the Chargers were proof enough that this game was one they expected to win.
“Yeah, they were real shocked, I think,” Hughey said. “They thought they would take it all the way to the title game. But they didn’t know about me, I doubt.”
Hughey scored on his team’s first play from scrimmage, sprinting through a wide hole in the Edison line and outracing several defenders to the end zone. His second and third touchdown runs were similar. Said Rubidoux Coach Wayne Cochrun, whose team will meet Quartz Hill, a 49-14 winner over Long Beach Wilson, in next week’s second round: “This was by far our biggest victory this year. Maybe they didn’t look at who we played and who are losses were to, like Eisenhower, Fontana, Bishop Amat. . . . We felt all along we were more a 7-3 team anyway.”
Edison’s Greg Seybert was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach late in the fourth quarter after he suffered a concussion after being tackled during a punt return.