Griffins Outscore Edison, 44-36

The estimated 4,000 spectators at Huntington Beach High who were fortunate enough to witness Friday’s game between Los Alamitos and Edison saw one of the year’s best games played by two of the county’s best running backs.

The unbeaten Griffins (7-0, 2-0 in the Sunset League) outlasted the Chargers, 44-36, to hang onto their No. 1 ranking in the county and position themselves to repeat as league champions.

But what people will talk about today--and perhaps years from now--was the magnificent duel between Los Alamitos running back Damon Johnson and Edison running back Darryl Poston.

Poston, a junior, might be the county’s most electrifying runner, the type of back who is at full speed after a step and carves through defenses like an electric knife. He rushed for 210 yards and four touchdowns in 23 carries Friday. He also caught three passes for another 121 yards, including a 91-yard touchdown reception on a shovel pass.

Johnson, a senior, isn’t quite as flashy. But he is deceptively fast and deceptively powerful, the kind of back who runs as hard between the tackles as he does trying to skate around the left or right end.

He was the big man on this night. Johnson rushed for 274 yards in 34 carries and scored five touchdowns. All of Johnson’s scores came on the ground, and the two most important ones--67 yards and 45 yards--came late in the fourth quarter to turn back a furious rally by Edison (5-2, 0-2), which trailed 24-14 at halftime and 31-14 after three quarters.

“Johnson and Poston--you saw an all-county backfield tonight,” Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes said. “I’m wrung out from watching them. They put on a heck of a show.

“Both offenses got on a roll tonight. I thought we might have been safe when we went up 31-14. If we had stopped their first drive of the fourth quarter, we would have been OK.”

Instead, Poston scored on a two-yard run, completing a 16-play, 80-yard drive and keeping Edison’s hopes alive.

But then Johnson snuffed out the Chargers’ hopes with long strides and powerful shoulders.

“I knew coming in that people knew more about Darryl and that’s because he’s a great back,” Johnson said. “But I knew our offense was ready for a breakout game, and we had that tonight, especially our offensive line. They were great; the holes were huge. I just tried to play my game.”

The Griffins’ other touchdown came on a 14-yard pass from Mike Sanford to Tony Holder in the second quarter.

Edison Coach Dave White has spent the past six years looking for a way to beat Los Alamitos, but has come out of those games joyless and winless.

“We’ll regroup again,” White said. ‘It’s frustrating and heartbreaking. But it comes down to the fact that they have been the best team in the league this decade, and in games like this they find a way to win.”