Trick Plays Treat Edison to 30-0 Victory

Everything but the fumblerooski.

After being shut out on offense last week, Edison decided to have some fun with the ball against Westminster Friday night at Huntington Beach High School.

An array of fake punts, flea flickers and double passes led the Chargers to a 30-0 Sunset League victory over Westminster and kept Edison’s faint playoff hopes alive.

“We’ve been struggling offensively, so we went with the trick stuff to try and liven things up,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “We used a little bit of everything.”

With Westminster (3-5, 1-4) suddenly leery of the razzle-dazzle, Edison (4-4, 2-3) went back to basics and moved the ball effectively. Two rushing first downs set up Todd Belitz’s 46-yard touchdown pass to Tony Borrelli for a 6-0 Charger lead after the first of five consecutive failed conversion tries.

Westminster wasn’t content to let Edison have all the trick-play fun. The Lions came out on their first possession in a no-huddle offense and finished their first drive with a fake punt that was unsuccessful.

Three plays later, Edison used a fake punt of its own and picked up 39 yards on Jeremy Simmons’ run off a short snap to the Westminster 15-yard line. From there, Chet Van Horn finished the drive with a three-yard scoring run for a 12-0 lead.

Van Horn scored his second touchdown early in the second quarter on a five-yard run, giving Edison an 18-0 lead on one of its few conventional drives of the night. Van Horn set up his own score with a 21-yard run one play earlier.

The lead increased to 24-0 at halftime after Adam Cancelleri burst off tackle for a 41-yard touchdown run with 4 minutes 15 seconds left in the second quarter.

Belitz, starting his first game of the season, displayed a strong arm and finished nine of 14 for 167 yards and two touchdowns, including a 17-yard scoring toss to former quarterback Geoff Bell in the third quarter.

Cancelleri finished with 122 yards in 16 carries.