Chargers bear down

There weren’t a ton of highlight-reel moments from either team.

But in the Sunset League, you take what you can get, and what the Edison High boys’ volleyball team got Tuesday night at home was an important 25-21, 25-20, 26-28, 25-17 victory over Marina.

The Chargers (12-8, 3-0 in league) have a first-place showdown with Newport Harbor Thursday at 5:45 p.m. At 2-0, the Sailors are the other undefeated team in league, and Edison would love to take that away.

There was no looking ahead Tuesday night, however, although Edison Coach Brian Boone wasn’t totally thrilled with his team’s performance.

“It wasn’t our best performance, that’s for sure, but a ‘W’ is a ‘W,’ ” Boone said. “There are no easy teams to play in the league. As a head coach, it’s frustrating because you’d like to get some of your other personnel in who have been working hard. When you’re in such a tough league, it’s next-to-impossible to do that.”

Edison instead relied on the kills of junior Torey Darin (23) and senior Dylan Auxier (20). Middle blockers Nick Capriccio (seven kills and five blocks) and Sean Zent were also big contributors.

“We didn’t use them very much, because our passing was kind of off, but they solidified things when they had the opportunity to touch the ball,” Boone said.

The Chargers took the first two games, but the feisty Vikings (8-7, 1-2) won Game 3, with a big block from senior Jacob Tricarico on game point. Marina also had a 16-15 lead in Game 4, but that was before Edison went on 8-0 run, capped by a kill from Auxier, that gave the Chargers a match point.

The Vikings also had trouble all match long with their rotations, which cost them points at key times. It reminded assistant coach Derek Fernando of the team’s five-game loss to Newport Harbor on April 2.

“Edison wasn’t really taking it to us as hard as we expected, but at the same time, they were taking advantage of mistakes,” Fernando said. “We had a lot of unforced errors both in our rotations, as well as serving, as well as trying to run our offense. It was really sloppy on our part. It really looked like we hadn’t played in a week, which was kind of true. Normally, our offense is a lot more crisp because of the mixture we have, but today it looked like we were out of sync.”

Jeff Newell had 61 assists for Edison, and Darin and Michael Brinkley each had nine digs.

“Every win’s important,” Darin said. “It’s another step to a Sunset League championship.”