Huntington Beach defeats Fountain Valley in football to open Sunset League
Sammy Green has adjusted to his role as Huntington Beach High School’s featured running back pretty smoothly.
Green followed a stellar performance in the Oilers’ season-opening win over Marina by rushing for 213 yards and two touchdowns in Huntington Beach’s 35-16 victory over Fountain Valley Friday at Huntington Beach High School.
The senior running back broke off a 68-yard touchdown run followed by a 20-yarder, behind a strong performance by his offensive line and under a dense marine layer.
“It was my first time playing in the marine layer,” Green said. “I enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun. You need to get used to different types of weather before college.”
The limited visibility did not hamper Huntington Beach’s passing offense either. AJ Perez completed seven of 13 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown to Tyler Moses. Joey Gentilella completed seven of eight passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns to Jonah Del Rosario.
Huntington Beach (2-0, 1-0 in league) didn’t start the game well, fumbling the first snap from scrimmage and handing Fountain Valley (0-2, 0-1) the ball on its 15-yard line. Unfortunately for the Barons, a costly false-start penalty forced them back five yards, and they failed to convert the turnover to points.
Fountain Valley head coach Chris Anderson pointed to that first drive as a crucial missed opportunity.
“You’ve got a short field and then fourth-and-short, and you give the ball right back,” Anderson said. “It saps that momentum you had with the turnover. It kind of changed things a little bit. It’s about execution. Turnovers and pre-snap penalties really hurt us.”
On the Oilers’ ensuing drive, Green found a hole and scampered 68 yards for the game’s first touchdown, putting Huntington Beach ahead 7-0 after the extra point.
On their next drive, Perez connected with Moses on a 25-yard catch and run that Moses snuck just inside the right pylon for Huntington Beach’s second touchdown.
“I saw them blitz so I made a little move to get to the line,” Perez said. “I just put it in the hands of the play-makers.”
After Green converted another touchdown run, this time from 20 yards out with 9:52 remaining in the second quarter, it was Gentilella’s turn to get in on the action. That’s when he completed a short 7-yard pass to Del Rosario at the front of the end zone to bring the score to 28-0 .
The Oilers’ dominated possession of the ball early, allowing the Barons to run just eight plays on offense until nearly midway through the second quarter. That is something Huntington Beach’s head coach Brett Brown likes to see.
“Our defense is playing really well right now,” Brown said. “We’ve been fortunate to get up the last two weeks so we can take the pressure off them and really open the defensive playbook. I think it helps them a lot.”
Gentilella connected with Del Rosario again in the third quarter for his second touchdown pass of the game and the Oilers’ final score.
Gentilella has relished his return to the field.
“It just makes me smile because I worked really hard to get to this point,” Gentilella said. “I’m just glad that I’m out there.”
Fountain Valley did break through in the fourth quarter, thanks to a 20-yard touchdown pass from Jimmy Russell to Andrew Olivares. That made it 35-8 after Russell converted a two-point try.
Russell completed nine of 24 passing attempts for 65 yards and a touchdown.
With just over three minutes remaining, the Barons struck again when Benjamin Pham scored on a 10-yard run to make it 35-16 after another Russell two-point conversion run.
Huntington Beach travels to Corona del Mar next week while Fountain Valley hosts Newport Harbor.
Sunset League
Huntington Beach 35, Fountain Valley 16
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Huntington Beach 14 – 14 – 7 – 0 — 35
Fountain Valley 0 – 0 – 0 – 16 — 16
FIRST QUARTER
HB – Green 68 run (Othman kick), 7:55.
HB – Moses 25 pass from Perez (Othman kick), 1:54.
SECOND QUARTER
HB – Green 20 run (Othman kick), 9:52.
HB – Del Rosario 7 pass from Gentilella (Othman kick), 1:25.
THIRD QUARTER
HB – Del Rosario 17 pass from Gentilella (Othman kick), 4:23.
FOURTH QUARTER
FV – Olivares 20 pass from Russell (Russell run), 4:20.
FV – Pham 10 run (Russell run), 3:04.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
HB – Green, 15-213, 2 TDs.
FV – Pham, 12-63, TD.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
HB – Perez, 7-13-0, 77, TD.
FV – Russell, 9-24-0, 65, TD.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
HB – Ray, 4-49.
FV – Olivares, 1-20, TD.
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