Huntington Beach Victory Is Sweet as Westminster Goes Sour

Easy is the best word to describe Huntington Beach’s 32-6 victory over Westminster on Friday night at Huntington Beach.

Westminster gift-wrapped a victory for Huntington Beach by committing five turnovers. Huntington Beach, desperately needing a victory to stay alive in the Sunset League race, gladly accepted, and turned two Westminster turnovers into touchdowns.

Those scores were all the Oilers needed to subdue sputtering Westminster.

Huntington Beach is 2-3, 1-1 in league play. Westminster fell to 3-2, 1-1.

The teams came into the game seemingly from opposite directions. The Oilers had lost three of four games, including a 27-13 defeat to Marina in the league opener last week. The Lions had won three of four, including a 21-0 wipeout of Ocean View last week.

But by halftime, it appeared the teams had switched uniforms. Almost everything Huntington Beach did went right. And everything Westminster tried went sour.

Huntington Beach always seemed to have great field position, and Westminster was always deep in its own territory. The Lions’ turnovers played a large part in that, however.

Five times the Oilers started drives in Lion territory, and another possession began at midfield. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

After linebacker Tony Gonzalez intercepted a pass by Westminster quarterback John Mahurien on the Lions’ first series, Huntington Beach was off and running. Justin Flagg’s one-yard dive into the end zone capped a five-play, 36-yard drive with 1 minute 28 seconds left in the first quarter.

After a short Westminster punt, Flagg ran 31 yards for another touchdown and Huntington Beach had a 12-0 lead.

Eric Escobedo added an 11-yard scoring run, Corey Austin made the extra point and Huntington Beach led, 19-0, by halftime.

Quarterback Jonathan Wimbish threw touchdown passes of 26 and 23 yards to Chris Yadrick and Gonzalez, respectively, to account for Huntington Beach’s other scores.

Westminster, which passed midfield only three times, finally scored on a 14-yard pass play from Mahurien to Steve Murphy with 17 seconds left in the game.

Huntington Beach had 196 yards rushing and 133 passing before Coach George Pascoe began to play the substitutes in the fourth quarter. Flagg had 65 yards in nine carries, Wimbish had 47 yards in six carries and Escobedo added 47 yards in 10 carries.

Gary Frazier gained 64 yards in seven carries and Murphy caught eight passes from Mahurien for 82 yards to lead Westminster’s sluggish offense.