Marina retains trophy; The Bell belongs to Edison

Mike Sciacca

For a fifth consecutive year, the Perpetual Trophy will don the

colors of Marina High.

And for the third time in the past four years, The Bell will ring

sweetly on the Edison High campus.

That’s because the Vikings and Chargers stepped it up in their

respective rivalry games against Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley

last Friday, enough so to retain important prizes each of the four

schools had sought to claim.

Marina defeated Huntington Beach for the fifth-straight time,

27-7, at Westminster High’s Boswell Field, putting Vikings head coach

Mike Dodd at 4-0 against his former school.

Dodd is a former assistant and head coach at Huntington.

The Vikings got an all-around outstanding performance from senior

quarterback Matt Brennan, who threw for two touchdowns and rushed for

two more.

Marina had taken a 21-0 halftime lead, thanks to Brennan and the

play of a stingy defense, and then went on to record its first win in

Sunset League play.

The seven points were the fewest given up by the Vikings defense

since it shutout Paramount in the first game of the season.

As the Marina-Huntington Beach clash was unfolding at Westminster

High, Edison took on Fountain Valley under the lights and glamour of

Edison International Field of Anaheim.

With The Bell sitting silently but prominently in back of the west

end zone, Edison took care of business on the playing field as it

handed Fountain Valley its first league loss, 22-8, before a

boisterous crowd estimated at 8,000.

In doing so, the Chargers, whose fans deliriously chanted, “We

want The Bell!,” moved into a first-place tie with the Barons and Los

Alamitos heading into the final week of regular season.

“There was a lot riding on this game, like winning The Bell and

playing for a league championship,” said Edison quarterback Brian

Shrock, a sophomore who figures to give the Barons fits the next two

years.

Shrock got his first taste of action in the big rivalry and played

big: he threw for 117 yards and two touchdowns on six of seven

passing.

He was supported by a defense that shutdown a Fountain Valley

offense that came into the game with a 26 points per game scoring

average in its last four games -- all victories.

Shrock was one of the Edison players to head to the end zone after

the final gun to ring The Bell.

The Edison-Fountain Valley game had played before

standing-room-only crowds at Orange Coast College the past 17 years

before moving back to Edison International Field, the annual site of

the big game between 1975 and 1985.

You could pit the Chargers against the Barons in a dirt lot, and

it would still be an all-out war that would draw a massive crowd.

“It’s a big game, no matter where it’s played, but it was awesome

to play it at Edison Field,” Charger senior wide receiver and

defensive back Matt White said. “Right when we stepped off the bus,

walked through the tunnel and got onto the field with the bright

lights shining, it was a great feeling that got us fired up.

“As part of the senior class, we wanted to go out by winning The

Bell and show the underclassmen how to do it, with class and dignity.

It’s just a great, intense rivalry.”