A LITTLE HISTORY

1937--The need to split the unwieldy Orange League into large and small school leagues led to the formation of the Sunset League, named for the Sunset Oil Company in Huntington Beach. Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Newport Harbor and Orange were joined by Long Beach Jordan and Excelsior of Norwalk, which won the first championship.

1978--The rivalry between Edison and Fountain Valley produced one of its best games, before 16,817 at Anaheim Stadium. Edison made a goal-line stand, then drove the length of the field to set up Rick Stephens’ 32-yard field goal with 50 seconds remaining for a 10-7 victory. The Chargers went on to win the Sunset League title, but Fountain Valley later won its first Southern Section title.

1999 IN REVIEW

The Sunset League had enough strong teams that it could qualify four teams for the Division I playoffs and still leave Edison at home with a 7-3 record. But topping the list was a familiar name, as Los Alamitos emerged with its third consecutive title. The Griffins, who entered the final week in a three-way tie for first place, forced five turnovers on the way to defeating Marina, 28-12. Fountain Valley lost a share of the championship when Esperanza scored on Greg Farrell’s 16-yard pass to Ryan Murray with 10 seconds to play and Ben Mastropaulo kicked the extra point to defeat the Barons, 21-20. . . . Marina’s Ray Mietkiewicz, who gained 1,871 yards on the ground in 11 games, was named the most valuable player. . . . Los Alamitos had the league’s only victories in the Division I playoffs, stunning Loyola, 30-23, in the quarterfinals after Chris Kluwe’s 60-yard field goal forced overtime. But the Griffins fell to Long Beach Poly, 35-9, in the semifinals.

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League Overall STANDINGS W L T W L T TP PA Los Alamitos 4 1 0 11 2 0 355 184 Esperanza 3 2 0 6 5 0 234 210 Fountain Valley 3 2 0 6 5 0 214 180 Marina 3 2 0 5 5 1 259 226 Edison 2 3 0 7 3 0 358 221 Huntington Beach 0 5 0 4 6 0 135 239

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Leaders

Statistics include regular season games only

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PASSING Att CP TD Yds Schwartz, Edison 173 103 15 1,933 Sanford, Los Alamitos 186 106 11 1,430 Sausedo, Esperanza 100 48 10 859 Farrell, Esperanza 111 77 3 840

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RUSHING Att Yds Avg TD Poston, Edison 232 1,701 7.3 26 Mietkiewicz, Marina 207 1,679 8.1 21 Johnson, Los Alamitos 255 1,324 5.2 17 Shuck, Huntington Beach 197 916 4.6 7

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RECEIVING Rec Yds Avg TD Murray, Esperanza 61 1,086 17.8 11 Cornell, Edison 28 587 21.0 7 Holder, Los Alamitos 27 296 11.0 2 Angone, Los Alamitos 23 355 15.4 1

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SCORING TD FG XP TP Poston, Edison 29 0 4 178 Mietkiewicz, Marina 21 0 2 128 Johnson, Los Alamitos 18 0 0 108 Abdelmuti, Fountain Valley 12 0 0 72

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NOTEBOOK

Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes needs two victories to surpass legendary Anaheim Coach Clare Van Hoorebeke as one of the winningest coaches in Orange County football history. Barnes has 189 victories--two of which came at Magnolia High--and could pass Van Hoorebeke, who won 190 games, in the Griffins’ second game, against Santa Margarita Sept. 14 at Cal State Fullerton. Barnes could surpass Dick Hill, the county’s all-time winningest coach with 212 victories (Hill has 224 victories overall, including his first season at Downey in 1956), in 2001. . . . Edison Coach Dave White, who has 95 victories, will win his 100th game with the Chargers this season, unless Edison falls far short of expectations. White could accomplish that feat Oct. 7 against Servite. But White might have to wait a bit longer. He called this season’s schedule, which includes nonleague power Mater Dei, the toughest it’s been in 11 years. . . . Marina Coach Mike Dodd said his biggest initial challenge as a first-year coach was to keep the Vikings’ returning players from transferring. “I had to come in and put out fires,” said Dodd, who replaced Mark Rehling, fired after leading Marina to the playoffs last season. At least seven players thought about leaving, Dodd said, but only two followed through and transferred to Fountain Valley. . . . SuperPrep magazine selected Edison’s Darryl Poston as its 24th-best running back prospect in the country.