Late Charge

Mike Sciacca

On the morning of Oct. 17, the Edison High football team was faced

with the reality that it could be a long season.

Young and inexperienced -- but full of talent and promise -- the

Chargers found themselves mired in a three-game losing streak, their

most recent setback, coming the night before, a critical 28-21 home

loss to Los Alamitos in the Sunset League opener.

But five weeks later, Edison sits poised, ready for another CIF

playoff run in a season that head coach Dave White has called “fun.”

“It really has been because all of this was unexpected,” said

White, who is in his 18th year as head coach of his alma mater.

What was unexpected is Edison’s late charge to end the season, one

which saw the Chargers win their final four league games and tie for

the Sunset championship for the second time in the past three years.

There are a lot of reasons for Edison’s strong finish to the

regular season, White said, but the team learned a lot from those

three losses -- 6-0 to Mater Dei, 7-0 to Servite, and the seven-point

setback to Los Alamitos -- games in which the Chargers easily could

have won.

“You can look back at those games and say, ‘what if,’ but, really,

all we did as coaches was tell the kids that they lost three tough

ones in a row and how close they had come to beating three very good

football teams,” White said. “We learned from those losses.

“This is a hard-playing, well-disciplined and smart team, and they

learned some lessons from those losses.”

The Chargers, who, as a 78-member strong team, hold a collective

grade point average of 3.3, with 12 players carrying a 3.7 or better

grade-point average, went on to pound Esperanza. They took The Bell

back from arch-rival Fountain Valley and finished 7-3 overall.

On Friday, they’ll travel to Fontana to face Citrus Belt League

runner-up, A.B. Miller, in a first-round Division I playoff game.

Edison will be meeting an A.B. Miller squad that is run-oriented.

The Rebels are led on offense by quarterback Kyle Jacobo, the

school’s career record-holder for rushing and passing, and running

back Jaquan Ramsey, who has rushed for 1,000 yards this year.

“Kyle’s a good one and Jaquan is a little guy but he’s very quick

and tough,” said A.B. Miller coach John Tyree, who has guided the

Rebels back to the playoffs following a two-year absence.

Van Howard, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound end, and linebacker/cornerback

Don Gloss, lead the Rebels on defense.

Edison tied Los Alamitos and Fountain Valley for the Sunset crown,

but lost out on a coin flip and was designated the league’s No. 3

playoff entry and was forced to hit the road for its first postseason

game.

Two years ago, Edison and Los Alamitos tied for the league title,

the Chargers also lost out on a coin flip for the No. 1 seed, but

seemed undaunted in rolling to the Division I championship game.

“We’ve been in this spot before, so we know we can do it,” White

said. “We’re heading into this game a confident team.”

Yet the Chargers could have tucked their tails, stuck at 3-3 in

mid-October.

Instead, they played through a season that saw several key

injuries hit its starting lineup, especially on defense.

White said that 15 or 16 players have seen action at some point

this season on defense, a unit that starts just three seniors.

“We’ve looked at game film on Edison and know that they have a

pretty good defense,” Tyree said. “That caught our eye.”

Tyree’s right.

Statistics-wise, White said it’s the best defense he’s had in his

18 years. The Chargers have given up a touchdown or less in eight of

10 games.

“We’ve just been very disciplined,” he said. “When someone has

been out with injury, someone else has coming in to do a great job.

The guys seem to feed off each other.

“What’s great about this team is that the senior class has done a

great job of playing well and showing leadership, and the

underclassmen also have played well and followed their lead.”

Several senior players have played outstandingly this year, among

them, White’s son, Matt.

Last week, the younger White established a new school record with

an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown.

The receiver/defensive back/punter is No. 2 on Edison’s career

receptions list and is six receptions away from tying career leader

Rick Justice’s mark of 120 receptions.

In addition, Matt White currently is the county leader in

interceptions this year with seven.

And, although the postseason run marks the end for the senior

class, the future looks bright for Edison.

This year, the sophomore team finished 8-2 overall and finished

second in the Sunset League, and its freshman team went 9-1 and won

the league title.

Members from the 2002 freshman team, which went 10-0, are

currently playing at the varsity level.

“Hopefully, we can continue to build on this season’s success,”

White said. “We figured, with this team, it was a year away from big

things. But, by battling back to have a fine season, they’ve showed

that they have begun to arrive.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.