Los Alamitos hands Edison first loss, moves into first in Sunset League
The Edison High football team‘s bid for a signature win and potentially its first Sunset League football title in head coach Jeff Grady’s tenure ran headlong into Los Alamitos in Thursday night’s showdown, and the Griffins’ stars made the difference.
Long Beach Jordan transfer Damian Henderson ran for 262 yards and a couple of touchdowns, USC-bound Malachi Nelson threw for 280 yards and three scores and Makai Lemon, another future Trojan, came up big on both sides of the ball as Los Alamitos romped to a 52-27 win over Edison at Huntington Beach High School.
The Chargers (7-1 overall, 2-1 Sunset League) kept in contention much of the way, but failed to finish off drives and struggled to slow down a powerhouse that amassed 669 total yards, 389 of them on the ground. The margin of victory was the largest in the series since the Griffins’ 52-14 rout in 1998.
“They’ve got a lot of playmakers,” Grady said. “And their playmakers made plays. They’re tough to stop. ... We weren’t good enough anywhere tonight. They were just the better team tonight.”
It means Los Alamitos (6-2, 3-0), with only Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley remaining on its schedule, is poised to win its third successive Sunset League championship, the past two captured with seven-point wins over the Chargers. That’s four titles in five seasons, with one shared with Corona del Mar.
The Griffins have won six of seven Sunset League matchups with Edison over the past 13 years, and, since joining the league in 1994, are 22-7-1 in the series.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” running back/safety Carter Hogue said. “We worked our butts off [preparing for this game], but the scoreboard shows we need to clean up a lot.”
The game was one of the most anticipated in Southern California this year, with both teams, based on CalPreps’ computer ratings, coming in with a chance of a CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoff berth — Edison at No. 6 and Los Al at No. 8. The Chargers, however, were playing catch-up all night after grabbing a 7-6 lead late in the first quarter.
Parker Awad, who completed 21 of 34 passes for 238 yards, accounted for all four Edison touchdowns, throwing for three scores and running for another. He was picked off twice in Griffins territory — just his second and third interceptions of the season — and the Chargers lost another opportunity near the end of the game when a helmet-to-helmet flag was waved off after Edison receiver Ashton Hurley fumbled near the end zone on a 20-yard reception.
Los Alamitos had eight plays of 30 or more yards, including touchdown throws covering 73 to Lemon, 31 to Carson Clark and 64 to Ethan O’Connor.
“They’ve got a bunch of athletes on their team, with Lemon and Nelson,” Hogue said. “And Henderson? Man, he’s the real deal. He can run the ball.”
Henderson’s first five carries were worth 77 yards, the fourth of them was a 32-yard sprint to give the Griffins a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
He added a 1-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion the next time they had the ball, providing a lead they would not relinquish. The scoring drive followed a wild sequence of events in which Los Alamitos marched from its 33 to Edison’s 10 on five quick plays. Dominic Lopez ended the threat when he intercepted a deflected Nelson pass at the 4 and took off on a 70-yard romp to the Griffins’ 26. A deflected Awad toss was intercepted on the next play, and Henderson made it 14-7 eight plays later.
Zechariah Misa’s 1-yard run to cap a 60-yard drive extended Los Alamitos’ lead to 14 points three-and-half minutes into the second quarter, and when the Chargers replied with Awad’s 37-yard touchdown pass to Tucker Tripp, the Griffins answered emphatically, with Lemon jetting down the left sideline for his long score. Chase McLachlan added a 35-yard field goal to end the first half at 31-14.
Edison, which meets rival Fountain Valley next week at Orange Coast College and closes the regular season against Corona del Mar, started the second half strongly, cutting the deficit to 10 on Awad’s 6-yard keeper three plays after Hogue ran 42 yards into the red zone. The Chargers couldn’t take advantage after stopping Los Alamitos’ initial second-half possession, and Nelson connected with Clark on the next drive and later with O’Connor halfway though the fourth quarter.
Awad and Mason York hooked up for a 15-yard touchdown with 4:50 to go, but Anthony League, who ran for 110 yards on 10 carries, gave the Griffins one more score five plays later.
“The guys were really dialed in tonight — had a lot of really good team unity,” Los Alamitos head coach Ray Fenton said. “I knew [from practice this week] that they were ready to play, and it showed. ... Our kids know what this game [with Edison] means.”
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