Barons lose, then wait

LONG BEACH — The waiting game started late Thursday night for the Fountain Valley High football team.

Just a week ago, the Barons were playing Edison at Cal State Fullerton for a shot at an outright Sunset League title.

Now, they may not even make it into the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division playoffs, although the Barons still appear to have a good shot of qualifying even after Thursday night’s regular-season ending 31-22 loss to Los Alamitos at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Barons drop to 3-2 in league, tied with Los Alamitos for second place. Fountain Valley will be the Sunset League’s third playoff participant if Newport Harbor loses to Esperanza Friday night.

If the Sailors beat Esperanza, however, they’ll also improve to 3-2 in league, creating a three-way tie for second. The team that loses a coin toss would need to hope they get the Pac-5 Division’s lone at-large berth.

Fountain Valley still appears to be a strong candidate for said berth with its 8-2 record, but it’s out of the Barons’ hands now.

“The big thing this week was character, and how were we going to respond [to last week’s 24-0 loss to Edison in the bell game],” Barons Coach John Shipp said. “We responded. We played a lot better. We just didn’t do enough. This league is such a tough league. It’s a grind. My kids battled their butts off and did a great job of coming back but we didn’t get it done. Now we’re depending on a coin toss and we’ll go from there.”

Kyle Middlebrooks ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries for Fountain Valley Thursday night. It was Middlebrooks’ 57-yard punt return for a touchdown with 4:42 left in the game that gave the Barons a 22-21 lead.

But Los Alamitos drove down the field with a steady diet of junior Nick Richardson, who carried the ball 40 times for 171 yards and a touchdown. The Griffins got to the Barons’ 17-yard line and, on fourth and six, Dan Boyer’s 35-yard field goal gave Los Al the lead back, 24-22.

Two players later, Los Al junior linebacker Traveeon Bennett intercepted a pass at the Fountain Valley 36 and took it to the house. After the extra point, the Griffins had a 31-22 lead.

Senior quarterback Dominic Ragland led Fountain Valley downfield but his pass into the end zone was intercepted by Los Al’s Josh Barut with 16 seconds left.

Seniors Austin Nguyen and Chad Smith played well on defense for the Barons, but Smith was kicked out of the game after a personal foul near the end of the third quarter, which would leave him ineligible for a possible first-round playoff game.

“We’re going to go back and review the tape,” Shipp said. “I can petition or appeal it based on what’s on film. Chad’s status [for next week] is up in the air... You just can’t have four our five unsportsmanlike [conduct penalties]. You can’t win football games that way.”

Senior receiver/defensive back Ryan Steadman gave an impassioned speech to his teammates after the game, as the Barons feared the possibility their season might be over.

But, for now, they wait.