Chargers ready to jump start new season

Mike Sciacca

School isn’t even in, but the game is on.

Friday at 7:30 p.m., Edison High will open its 2004 football

season against Servite at Glover Stadium in Anaheim.

Not only is the game the first among the four Huntington Beach

high schools in the 2004 season, but it’s also one of the county’s

marquee games of the season -- well, any season, for that matter.

Each school has a tradition steeped in gridiron glory, each with

several league and CIF championships. The Chargers and Friars also

have a long-standing, intense rivalry.

The teams first met in the second round of the 1979 CIF Southern

Section Big Five Conference playoffs, where Edison emerged with a

17-0 victory en route to a CIF championship.

The following season, Edison used the Friars as a first-round

stepping stone in the playoffs, its 35-0 victory sending the Chargers

on their way to an eventual 14-0 season and a second consecutive CIF

title.

But Servite pulled a shocker in the first-round of the 1981

playoffs, where it upset a heavily favored 10-0 Edison team by a 14-7

score. The Friars’ victory snapped Edison’s school-record 32-game win

streak and ended the Chargers’ bid for a third consecutive CIF crown.

“We sure have a long tradition with them,” Edison coach Dave White

said. “We renewed this rivalry a few years ago, and it’s a great

game.

“We lost a tough game last year, and this will be another tough

one, but it will be a good test for us right out of the gate.”

In the fifth week of nonleague play last October, the

Servite-Edison matchup was a defensive struggle and turned in the

Friars’ favor when linebacker Mike Hernishin scooped up a second

quarter Chargers’ fumble and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown. It

was the only score in a 7-0 Servite victory.

The setback was the first of three losses by a touchdown or less

that Edison would suffer en route to an 8-4 season, which included a

portion of the Sunset League championship and a second-round spot in

the Division I playoffs.

Servite improved to 5-0 following its 7-0 win over Edison, but

stumbled in the tough Serra League, where it finished last among six

teams and concluded its season 6-4 overall.

Both the Chargers and Friars are similar in 2004, in that both

have several returners back on each side of the ball.

“They’re always a physical, well-coached team and that’s what I

definitely expect to see Friday night,” White said of the Friars.

“The team that comes out on top will be the one that executes more,

that shows intensity throughout the game.”

Servite will be led on offense by senior quarterback Andrew Boyle

(6-2, 195) and running backs Ken Ashley (5-9, 210, Jr.) and Omar

Ramiro (5-11, 180, Sr.). Boyle rotated at quarterback last year with

the now-graduated Mike Lawrence and Ashley and Ramiro rotated at

running back.

Edison returns eight players on both offense and defense from its

2003 squad. The offense is highlighted by seven returning all-Sunset

League players: quarterback Brian Shrock (5-11, 180, Sr.), running

backs Abel Cardona (5-6, 160, Jr.) and Josh Gage (6-1, 190, Sr.),

tight end Adam Goodman (6-2, 215, Sr.) and offensive linemen Romney

Fuga (6-2, 250, Jr.), Kourosh Davatolhagh (6-2, 250, Sr.) and Chris

Talataina (6-1, 220, Jr.).

The Chargers’ returning all-league defensive are Logan Galitski

(5-11, 210, Sr.) and Christian Bonsall (6-3, 235, Sr.) along the

line, Gage at linebacker, Ryan Davis (6-0, 190, Sr.) and Bill Colazas

(6-0, 180, Sr.) in the secondary and Goodman and Gabe Moreno (5-10,

185, Jr.) at end.