Barons Lock It Up Late

Fountain Valley waited until the fourth quarter Friday to put away Huntington Beach, scoring two touchdowns in the final six minutes to lock up a 28-7 Sunset League victory at Huntington Beach High School.

The Barons (4-3, 1-1 in league) outgained the Oilers, 270 yards to 101, but struggled to put the ball in the end zone for most of the game. Fountain Valley didn’t take the lead until Mike Kotler scored on a 30-yard run with 4 minutes 19 seconds left in the third quarter to break a 7-7 tie, then padded the lead against a tiring Oiler defense.

“They’re like us. They’ve got a lot of two-way guys,” Fountain Valley Coach Eric Johnson said. “We wore them down a little bit.”

Russell Oschman got Huntington Beach (2-5, 0-2) on the board in the first quarter. One play after a seven-yard Fountain Valley punt gave the Oilers the ball at the Baron 42, Oschman went around left end to give his team a 7-0 lead.

Oschman rushed for 104 yards in the game, but Huntington Beach had no other offensive weapons. Oiler Coach Tony Ciarelli gave Phil Amico his first start at quarterback, but neither he nor usual starter Casey Ryder could get anything going.

Fountain Valley started the game well, as Kotler (111 yards rushing) ripped off a 31-yard run to set up the Barons at the Huntington Beach 12. However, quarterback Casey Clark fumbled a play later to end that threat. The Barons drove 71 yards in the second quarter to tie the score, Kotler getting the first of his two touchdowns on a four-yard run for the tying points.

“I thought we played a good solid game, especially on defense,” Johnson said. “We’re going to have to play good defense if we want to play with Edison and Los Alamitos.”