It Takes 16 Years for Edison, Poly to Do It Again

The last time Huntington Beach Edison played Long Beach Poly in a Southern Section football championship game, Edison players pounded their helmets on the turf in disappointment and shed tears in the locker room afterward. All because the Chargers had won a title. A share of it anyway.

Edison and Poly played to a 14-14 tie in the 1985 Big Five Conference final. Edison could not make a 14-0 lead stand up with fewer than five minutes left against a Poly squad that included future NFL players Mark Carrier and Leonard Russell.

“Poly was a phenomenal team with 11 or 12 [future] Division I [college] kids and we were severe underdogs,” said Dave White, then in his final season as an Edison assistant before taking over as head coach the next year. “For 31/2 quarters we outplayed them and then, all of a sudden, they kicked into gear and turned it up about 10 notches.”

Edison plays Poly again Saturday night in the Division I championship game at Edison Field. Some things have changed since that 1985 final. Anaheim Stadium is now Edison Field. The Southern Section--which eliminated tiebreakers in championship games in 1982--now allows overtime periods in championship games, a change that was made after Poly and Santa Ana Mater Dei tied, 21-21, in 1999.

But much remains the same.

Poly (11-1) is once again loaded with players who will play at major colleges and possibly the NFL. The two-time defending champion Jackrabbits advanced to their fifth consecutive final with a 28-7 victory over Los Alamitos. Edison (11-0-1) is in the final for the first time since 1985. The Chargers advanced with a 41-7 victory over Mater Dei.

“There’s a lot of similarities to 1985,” White said. “We’re playing well right now, and Poly has an awesome team again. It’s a little bit of a David vs. Goliath, but our kids believe we can play with them.”

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Public address: The Edison-Poly game on Saturday marks only the third championship-game matchup between public schools in the Southern Section’s largest division since the 1985 game between the same teams.

Fontana defeated Fountain Valley, 21-0, in 1987, and Fontana beat San Gorgonio, 35-7, in 1989.

“We had to go through the parochial leagues to get here,” said White, whose team defeated Bellflower St. John Bosco, La Puente Bishop Amat and Mater Dei in the playoffs. “It’s a little harder for the public schools to get there in Division I. I’m proud of the way our kids rallied and kept playing.”

Poly defeated Fountain Valley, Los Angeles Loyola and Los Alamitos to reach the final.

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Tale of the city: The City Section championship game features Dorsey (9-3) against Woodland Hills Taft (10-2).

Dorsey won a lower-division title in 1982 and the City championship in 1989, 1991 and 1995. The Dons are in the final for the first time since winning their last title. Taft won its only City title in 1998 and has not been to the final since.

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No strangers: Three championship games are rematches of last year’s finals. In Division VII, Hacienda Heights Los Altos and Covina Charter Oak will play for the third consecutive year. Los Altos defeated the Chargers, 28-21, last season and 33-3 in 1999.

Ventura St. Bonaventure, trying to win its third consecutive title, defeated Orange Lutheran, 34-16, in last year’s Division XI final. Lancaster Paraclete defeated Van Nuys Montclair Prep, 14-12, in last year’s Division XIII final to win its fourth consecutive championship.

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No strangers, Part II: Six of the Southern Section championship games are rematches between teams that played this season. In Division III, Newhall Hart defeated Valencia, 26-0, in a Foothill League game on Oct. 19. Valencia has lost seven consecutive games against Hart since joining the Foothill League in 1996.

In Division V, Riverside North defeated Moreno Valley Valley View, 14-7, in an Ivy League game Nov. 1.

In Division VI, La Mirada beat Lakewood Mayfair, 28-0, in a Suburban League game Oct. 5.

In Division VII, Charter Oak defeated Los Altos, 14-13, in Miramonte League game on Oct. 26. In Division IX, Brea Olinda defeated Buena Park, 23-6, in the opening week on Sept. 7.

In Division X, Santa Monica defeated North Torrance, 23-20, in an Ocean League game Oct. 12.

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Welcome to the big time: Fontana Kaiser, Buena Park and Mammoth are playing in championship games for the first time.

Kaiser advanced to the Division VIII final with a 30-0 victory over Riverside Ramona and will play defending champion La Quinta. Buena Park, in the playoffs for the first time in its 44-year history, advanced by beating defending champion West Covina South Hills, 29-17, and will play Brea Olinda.

Mammoth advanced to the Division XIII final against Riverside Arrowhead Christian with a 47-26 victory over North Hollywood Campbell Hall.

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Turnaround: No team in a championship game has made a bigger turnaround than Valley View.

Valley View (9-4), 1-9 last season, advanced to the final after Spencer Moore caught a shovel pass and ran 45 yards for a touchdown with slightly more than one minute left in the Eagles’ 35-25 semifinal victory over Murrieta Valley.

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No small feats: Arcadia Rio Hondo Prep said goodbye to eight-man football with a 34-28 overtime victory over Yucca Valley Joshua Springs in the Southern Section Eight-Man small-division final last week.

Rio Hondo Prep, which will step up to 11-man football in Division XIII next season, won its 10th section title when quarterback Matt Heersema scored on a two-yard run.