Huntington Beach Stifles Edison
Huntington Beach quarterback Jonathan Wimbish put the ball away for a moment, grabbed a pen and pursued the Oilers’ former star running back, Danny Thompson, for an autograph Friday night before warming up for a Sunset League finale against Edison.
Wimbish had attended all of Huntington Beach’s games in 1983 when Thompson led the Oilers to the Sunset League title and had a scrapbook of Thompson clippings to prove his loyalty.
“He was my idol,” Wimbish said. “I’ll always remember the game where he scored four touchdowns to beat Edison and win the championship.”
Nine years later, Thompson stood on the sideline at Huntington Beach and watched Wimbish lead the Oilers to a 17-0 victory over Edison in front of 3,000 fans on Alumni Night.
It marked only the third time Huntington Beach has defeated Edison in the last 20 years.
Huntington Beach (6-4, 5-2 in league) used two long touchdown runs--a 75-yarder by Eric Escobedo on the game’s opening play and an 87-yarder by teammate Chris Yadrick in the third quarter--to duplicate last year’s final record.
Unfortunately, it’s very likely Huntington Beach won’t be making postseason plans for the second consecutive year. The Oilers needed an upset win by Westminster over Fountain Valley to earn the league’s No. 3 berth, but Fountain Valley prevailed, 27-12.
Huntington Beach’s chances of earning an at-large berth in the Southern Section Division II playoffs aren’t likely either with Dominguez (8-2) finishing fourth in the San Gabriel Valley League.
“It’s a shame if this team doesn’t get a shot in the playoffs,” said Huntington Beach Coach George Pascoe. “We’re just hitting our stride. We went to the option six weeks ago and this team has come a long ways since then.”
At least the likelihood of failing to make the playoffs will be a little easier for Pascoe and his players to deal with.
Last season, Huntington Beach went into its season finale against Edison (5-5, 3-4) in first place, but in a matter of 24 hours, the Oilers did a flop from the top and finished fourth.
First, Huntington Beach lost to the Chargers, 21-14, and fell into a three-way tie for second place with Marina and Edison. Then, the hard-luck Oilers became the odd man out when it lost the flip to Marina and Edison.
The final blow came when Huntington Beach was passed over for the at-large berth in the 16-team field.
So, while history was repeated by Wimbish following his childhood idol Friday, it’s likely it will also be repeated at the Southern Section office Sunday when the pairings are announced.