Edison Beats Marina; League Mark Now 3-0

Darryl Poston did his part.

Richard Schwartz did his part, too.

And the Edison defense may have had the best night of all.

The second-ranked Chargers dominated Marina, 28-3, Thursday, winning for the seventh time in eight games. More important to Edison, it is 3-0 in the Sunset League, only two victories from winning its first league title since 1990.

The Chargers last week ended a six-game losing streak to Los Alamitos, and Thursday they ended a two-game losing streak to Marina. The Chargers, who have lost the last five meetings to Fountain Valley, play the Barons next week.

Poston, a tailback bound for USC, rushed 30 times for 198 yards and one touchdown before sitting out most of the fourth quarter.

Schwartz, who has committed to California, completed nine of 16 passes for 135 yards and three touchdowns to different receivers.

The defense, which shut out Los Alamitos in the second half a week ago, picked up where it left off. It surrendered 156 yards to Marina’s offense, but 73 came on one play--a run by Adam Hayward that set up Sean Sanchez’s 29-yard field goal.

The Chargers gained 381 yards, and ran 21 more offensive plays than the Vikings.

“It wasn’t a great performance, but it was a good performance,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “We’re more worried about getting a win in league than anything else. We’re 3-0 in league and we haven’t done that in a long time. “

Though the Chargers dominated, it was still a game at halftime, 7-3. Edison had only Poston’s 28-yard touchdown run and a missed 39-yard field-goal attempt by Travis Wilson.

“I thought we had a chance at halftime,” Marina Coach Mike Dodd said, “but then we kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”

In the second half, Edison’s defense and Schwartz put on a show. Chucky Linman intercepted two passes, Stephen Webber intercepted another, and Bubba Reynolds and David Straub recovered fumbles.

Schwartz threw touchdown passes of 23 yards to Poston, nine yards to Josh Slaton and 33 yards to Marcus McCutcheon--all in the third quarter.

“I guess we were a little flat,” White said. “Marina played well in the first half on defense. Maybe they were our problem.”

Marina has problems of its own.

The Vikings opened the season 5-0, but have lost three in a row. Now they’re losing players, too.

The Vikings were without quarterback Beau Brown on Thursday because of a deep bruise in his collarbone. They were stung by a more serious injury in the first quarter. Aaron Williams, a starting defensive back and running back, broke his leg, according to Dodd. Williams went down in pain on Edison’s second possession while trying to make an interception; he picked off the pass, but was out of bounds.

And that typified Marina’s night.