Barons Make Extra Effort

If Fountain Valley’s 13-12 victory at Huntington Beach Thursday night was any indication, the Sunset League will be as tough as ever. A missed extra point was the difference in this defensive battle.

“That’s the Sunset League. Most of the games in this league will be this way,” Oiler Coach Tony Ciarelli said.

Fountain Valley (5-1, 1-0) out-gained the Oilers in total yards, 326-105, but didn’t take its first lead until nine minutes 22 seconds remained in the game.

The Barons held the makeshift Oiler offense to 66 yards on the ground. Some of that had to do with the fact that Huntington Beach was without right tackle Brendan Rosen, who injured an ankle in last week’s 7-6 nonleague victory over Troy.

With Rosen out, Ciarelli moved 6-foot-9, 255-pound tight end Sam Lightbody to tackle, taking away one of quarterback Jeff Emerson’s favorite--and most visible--targets. Lightbody led the charge early on, as the Oilers took a 6-0 lead at the 6:42 mark of the first quarter on a 10-yard end around by Emerson that capped an eight-play, 52-yard drive.

But junior kicker Shaun Donahoe sailed his point-after try wide right.

Huntington Beach capitalized on a fumbled punt by Anthony Stone as the second quarter opened. Jeff Ruziecki recovered the ball at the Baron 35 and eight plays later Damon Van Hoorebeke plunged into the end zone from the one-yard line.

But once again, the Oilers failed on the conversion, this time when Emerson bootlegged right and was wrapped up at the three-yard line by Fountain Valley free safety Aaron Carter.

From that point, the Baron defense contained the Oilers, and the Fountain Valley offense, which managed just 25 total yards in the first quarter, got going. A four-yard pass from quarterback Ryan Breska, who finished with 171 yards passing, to Carter got the Barons on the board three minutes before halftime, and the point after by Carter moved Fountain Valley to within five points of the Oilers, 12-7.

By the time Breska fired a 20-yard scoring pass to tailback Adam Ramirez to take the lead for good with 9:22 to go in the game, the Baron defense was firmly in control.

“We made some adjustments at halftime,” linebacker Nick Heinle said. “We all knew what our assignments were and we were capable of doing them, we just had to do a better job.”

Fountain Valley Coach George Berg said the Barons talked about stopping quarterback keepers around end. It worked. Huntington Beach netted just three rushing yards rushing in the second half.

“We got on our defense people to pinch in and stop their roll out and our defense came up big for us,” Berg said. “This was a great Sunset League game that will be typical of all of the matches you’ll see this season.”