It has been an odd season for Edison (Huntington Beach).
The Chargers lost two of their players within a week of each other right before their first game. Two-way starter Davion Orphey, a senior running back and defensive back, was ruled academically ineligible. Quarterback Chase Favreau was ruled athletically ineligible.
Edison High's Charles Burks.
Photo by Tom Lemming
The Favreau decision has since been reversed, giving the Chargers an overdue sigh of relief. The junior transfer from Mater Dei (Santa Ana) made his debut last week – a four touchdown performance in a 48-7 victory over Wilson (Long Beach). Without him a week earlier, his team coasted past Lakewood (Artesia), 59-0.
But now come the big guns.
Edison will play Thursday at Huntington Beach against Dana Hills (Dana Point), which features two game-breakers — receiver Chris Kearney and quarterback Trent Mason — followed by consecutive games against Servite (Anaheim) and Mater Dei. It's a tall order for the Chargers and Coach Dave White, who went 13-1 last season and beat Servite in a nonleague game but lost to the Friars in the Pac-5 championship game, 16-6.
The defense this season is a no-name bunch, with only defensive end Charles Burks — who had 14 sacks despite missing a month of the season — returning to the same position he held all of 2009. Burks returned a fumble 40 yards for a touchdown against Wilson. He and his defense will be taking on a dual-threat in Mason, who has directed his team to an average of 50 points per game. Edison, even with sophomore Aleksander Torgersen running the show in the first game, has averaged 53.5.
"We're improving, but we still don't really know how good we're going to be," White said. "We'll know a whole lot more after the next three weeks."
Last season, Edison trailed Dana Hills at halftime before winning and also beat the Dolphins in the Pac-5 playoffs. This could be a great game, a shootout, but the real meat of the schedule includes the two Catholic schools from the Trinity League in successive weeks.
"When we've stayed healthy, playing those big games leading into the Sunset League has been beneficial to us," White said. "A couple of times we got beat up and it hurt us, but for the most part it helped us. We learned all our deficiencies and fixed them.
"Since we started playing Servite and Mater Dei in 2000, we won the conference seven of nine years, and I think we've won more playoff games the last decade."
Over the last 10 years, only Long Beach Poly has had more appearances than Edison's three in the Division I section finals.
Servite and Mater Dei both have tall orders this week, too. Servite plays host to La Habra, and Mater Dei plays at Centennial (Corona). If La Habra quarterback Cody Clements plays — he skipped last week with a knee injury — the Highlanders are a legitimate threat to beat Servite. Despite various rankings, Centennial might prove itself to be the best team around.
"I think our kids are more excited about playing Servite and Mater Dei than Artesia and Wilson," White said. "Win or lose, as long as we get better and learn from it, it will be beneficial to our program. I think we're an above average team right now and we have a chance to be a good team before it's over with."
That journey begins in earnest on Thursday.
SO, WHO'S OUT TO PROVE THEY'RE NO. 1?
The Marmonte League includes an unprecedented 10 teams this season, and with the addition of private school powers St. Bonaventure (Ventura) and Oaks Christian (Westlake Village), the league boasts no fewer than four programs who annually topped the polls in their respective divisions.
But that means only one nonleague game is afforded to each team, and after the first two weeks of the season that card has been played. So who among the Marmonte League teams went out and tried to make a statement?
Agoura defeated Ventura (Division IV), 35-34. Ventura was 5-6 last season.
Calabasas defeated Granada Hills (Los Angeles City D1), 17-7. Granada Hills was 2-8 last season.
Moorpark lost to Eastlake (Chula Vista) (San Diego, D1), 24-21. Eastlake was 11-1-1 last season.
Newbury Park beat Buena-Ventura (Division IV), 21-14. Buena was 9-3 last season.
Oaks Christian lost to Alemany (Mission Hills) (Division I), 20-17. Alemany was 10-4 last season.
Royal (Simi Valley) beat Golden Valley (Santa Clarita) (Division III), 20-19. Golden Valley was 0-10 last season.
Simi Valley lost to Golden Valley (Division III), 31-19.
St. Bonaventure beat Long Beach Poly (Division I), 32-7. Poly was 6-6 last season.
Thousand Oaks beat Hueneme (Oxnard) (Division IV), 51-14. Hueneme was 8-4 last season.
Westlake (Westlake Village) beat Oxnard (Division IV), 42-14. Oxnard was 7-4 last season.
You've got to give high marks to St. Bonaventure, Moorpark, and Oaks Christian for playing credible opponents from higher divisions. Even though Westlake went 14-0 last season and is among the most highly ranked teams in the nation, at this point you'd have to say that St. Bonaventure is the team that has thrown down the gauntlet.
While the St. Bonny victory over Poly was not necessarily surprising, the margin of victory was absolutely stunning. The Seraphs were ahead 22-0 at halftime and held a 32-0 lead in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Marc Evans ran for one touchdown and passed to Jeremy Sanchez for another, Tanner Souza returned a fumble for a touchdown and Shaun Wick added another scoring run.
St. Bonny plays host to Oaks Christian on Friday at Ventura High, and plays at Westlake on Nov.15.
Why is it important to play a reputable team in your only nonleague game? Because the Northern Division is dominated by the Marmonte League, which means they're all fighting amongst themselves for the last 13 weeks of the season leading up to the CIF State Bowl Championship series. The Northern Division is competing with the City, Pac-5 and Inland divisions, among others, for the Division I Bowl berth. The elite teams from those other divisions use their nonleague games to try to prove they are worthy of the Open or Division I berth. From the Marmonte League, St. Bonaventure was the only team that stepped up.
CHAPARRAL MAKES A STATEMENT - SORT OF
Chaparral (Temecula) lost its season opener to Oceanside, 21-14, and quarterback Matt Morin took the loss to heart. "This was a great loss," he told the Riverside Press Enterprise. "We will not lose the rest of the year, I guarantee that. I won't let this happen again."
Chaparral, the defending Inland Division champion, will play arch-rival Centennial and Servite, the defending Division II State Bowl champion, over the next three weeks. A week before Oceanside beat Chaparral, Servite beat Oceanside, 31-7.
GIVE-AND-TAKE IT TO THE HOUSE
Upland scored a 42-21 victory over Tustin by turning three fumbles into 21 points. A week earlier against Miller (Fontana), the Highlanders returned two fumbles for scores in a 21-16 victory. Up next for Upland is Serrano (Phelan), which has traditionally been a very strong lower division school.
GARDEN GROVE HONORS TELLES' MEMORY
One year and one day after fullback/linebacker Kevin Telles of Garden Grove collapsed and died in a the season-opener against Westminster, the Argonauts scored a 46-14 victory over their opponent from that fateful night. Before the game, Garden Grove retired the No. 45 that Telles wore. Inspired by him, the Argos had their best season since 1945 — they won their first 13 games before losing in the Southern Division finals to La Mirada.
THREE DOTS AND A CLOUD OF DUST
On his current pace of 12.8 yards per carry, Nick Richardson of Los Alamitos would need only 35 more carries to reach 1,000 yards. He has 552 yards and eight touchdowns in victories over Norwalk and Mayfair, and next up is West Adams (Los Angeles), a City Section school in its fourth season. ... Matt Peck had four interceptions in a 31-7 Poly (Riverside) victory over Ramona (Riverside). ... Centennial (Corona) scored six first-half touchdowns and held the ball for just 4 minutes, 25 seconds in its 48-8 victory over Birmingham (Lake Balboa). Barrinton Collins rushed for five touchdowns in that game – on eight carries. ... Redlands and Summit (Fontana) played to a 24-24 tie. It was a nonleague game. Why didn't they play overtime? Because Redlands didn't agree to it before the game. ... Running back Cedric Whitaker has reportedly returned to Newport Harbor but will not play for the Sailors.
Martin Henderson began covering Southland preps in 1993 for the Los Angeles Times. He contributes to the Orange County Register, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun, and offers up motorsports opinions at Racescribe.com. You can reach him at southlandpreps@yahoo.com.
