The Fine Print

With week-long festivities winding down as the eve of the Big Game

approaches, Edison High is encouraging all of its alumni attending

Friday’s showdown with rival Fountain Valley to wear their letterman’s

jacket. Edison’s football boosters intend to honor the current Chargers

by having the jacket-wearing alumni form a tunnel as the team takes the

field at Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium...

Fountain Valley is enjoying a four-game win streak over Edison - the

Barons’ longest in the series...

Over the past 10 years, the teams have split their meetings...

What gutsy performances the Fountain Valley rushing tandem of Steven

Fifita and Nedal Abdelmuti gave in last week’s upset win over Los

Alamitos. Fifita, playing despite an ankle injury, got 76 of his

game-high 153 yards on a touchdown run early in the second half, and

Abdelmuti, playing with a hamstring injury, blasted his way to a 64-yard

touchdown run and finished with 95 yards on 11 attempts in a stunning

34-27 victory...

The Baron defense did a tremendous job in limiting Los Alamitos’ leading

rusher, Damon Johnson, to just 118 yards on 35 carries. A week earlier,

Johnson had rambled for 274 yards on 34 attempts and scored five

touchdowns in a 44-36 win over Edison...

Marina High’s surprising rise to the top of the Sunset League chart can

be traced to its defensive improvement from a year ago. In eight games

this season, the Vikings have recorded 26 sacks, including eight in last

week’s win over Huntington Beach. Last year, Marina had eight sacks the

entire season...

Marina’s defense - especially its backfield, will be put to the test by

Esperanza receiver Ryan Murray, who gained a school-record 256 yards on

10 receptions and scored three touchdowns in last week’s 41-34 loss to

Edison...

Not to be outdone, Marina’s offense also already equaled last year’s

scoring output with 280 points, with two games still to play in the

regular season...

Marina’s 32-point margin of victory against Huntington Beach was the

largest by either school in their heated rivalry, which dates back to

1965...

Sitting alone in first-place with two games to play, Marina is in

position to win its first league championship since the 1986 season...

Two area rushers, Edison’s Darryl Poston and Marina’s Ray Mietkiewicz,

are well past the 1,000-yard rushing mark this season with 1,469 and

1,346 yards, respectively. Those numbers are more impressive when you

take into account that Mietkiewicz has accumulated his in just seven

games and continues to play with a broken wrist, and that Poston played a

little more than one half of football in each of Edison’s first three

games...

Boy, did Ocean View miss the services of its leading receiver, Patrick

Campbell, in last week’s game with Westminster (the Seahawks lost,

44-36). Campbell, one of the county’s top receivers with a 13.3 average,

sat out the key Golden West League game due to a hyper-extended elbow, an

injury he suffered two weeks ago against Santa Ana. He’s expected to play

in Friday’s nonleague game against Santiago, Ocean View Coach Harold

Eggers said...

On the mend: Huntington Beach was hit with some key injuries in last

week’s Marina game, the most severe being a shoulder injury suffered by

its top receiver, Justin Keadle. The junior tight end is a question mark

for tonight’s game with Los Alamitos. Also questionable tonight is

sophomore linebacker Issac Davalos, who injured his ankle against the

Vikings. Defensive lineman Mark Corrales also suffered an ankle injury

last week, but Coach Tony Ciarellli says the senior should be ready for

Los Alamitos...

Ocean View and Santiago have played three common opponents in Century,

Santa Ana, and Garden Grove. The Seahawks went 3-0 against that group,

while the Cavaliers posted a 2-1 mark.