Edison football continues winning ways against Palos Verdes
WESTMINSTER — Edison didn’t need its “A” game to roll over visiting Palos Verdes for its fourth victory to start the high school football season — the first time that’s happened since winning a CIF Southern Section title in legendary coach Dave White’s final season six years ago — not with Jackson Irwin on the field.
The senior wide receiver and defensive end gave a highlight-reel performance in Thursday night’s 35-7 romp at Westminster High. Irwin didn’t leave the field until the finish neared and seemingly did everything. He caught his first three passes of the season — all for touchdowns. The last was just four plays after he blocked a punt to provide a critical three-touchdown edge at halftime. He was, as usual, a force at defensive end, punctuating it all with a sack on his final play.
Carter Hogue added a 72-yard touchdown run in the third quarter (en route to 122 yards on 10 carries) and Parker Awad a 1-yard scamper in the fourth. Edison’s crushing run defense made certain that whatever might be troubling the Chargers (4-0) would have little impact.
“We didn’t have much energy,” Edison head coach Jeff Grady said. “The sideline was almost silent, and we kind of played like that. I don’t feel like we kind of played to our standard. ... We’re going to have to tackle better and we’re going to have to figure out a way to move the ball.”
Perhaps it was harder to get up for Palos Verdes (1-3), expected to make a run at its 10th Bay League title in a dozen years, after the emotion of last week’s big victory over Orange Lutheran, a game the Chargers had circled following last year’s two-point defeat.
Edison totaled 402 yards — 200 on the ground, 200 through the air — but much of that came on Awad’s early 63-yard pass to a wide-open Ty Bandaruk, the 33-yard touchdown pass to Irwin that followed, Hogue’s scoring run, and a tackle-breaking, 30-yard run by Dominic Lopez after Hogue exited with cramps on the Chargers’ first fourth-quarter offensive play.
Grady wasn’t sold on that: “I just felt we didn’t play our style of football, to be honest.”
The usually hyper-efficient Awad, who completed just 12 of 22 throws and tossed his first interception of the season, said he “definitely agreed.”
“We’re going to learn from this game and keep going,” said the senior quarterback, whose 200 yards pushed him past 3,000 — to 3,171 — in 15 varsity outings. “We still have a long season ahead.”
Irwin slipped a tackle on the first score, made his second catch on a 10-yarder into the left corner just beyond the goal line, then, after knocking down Michael Decker’s punt to give the Chargers possession inside the Palos Verdes 40, was open at the back-left corner of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown with barely a half-minute to go in the half.
“Tonight was my first time to kind of make a name for myself, because I didn’t really play the last couple of games [on offense],” said Irwin, who was vital with star junior receiver Mason York sidelined with a groin strain. “But I definitely stepped up, made a name for myself. It was so much fun.”
Said Awad: “He’s got such wide range, such good speed and catches anything you throw his way. Just makes my job a lot easier.”
The Chargers surrendered 167 total yards — just 2.5 yards per carry for 87 of those — and nearly half of those came on an 18-play, 80-yard drive that lasted nearly 10 minutes of the third and fourth quarters. It featured three third-down passing conversions and a fourth-down run by Jacob Reis, the son of former LA Galaxy goalkeeper and assistant coach Matt Reis, who scored on a 1-yard run.
Nonleague
Edison 35, Palos Verdes 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Palos Verdes 0 - 0 - 0 - 7 — 7
Edison 7 - 14 - 7 - 7 — 35
FIRST QUARTER
E —Irwin 33 pass from Awad (Preston kick), 3:05.
SECOND QUARTER
E — Irwin 10 pass from Awad (Preston kick), 5:42.
E — Irwin 16 pass from Awad (Preston kick), 0:31.
THIRD QUARTER
E — Hogue 72 run (Preston kick), 6:12.
FOURTH QUARTER
PV — Reis 1 run (Freebury kick), 8:25.
E — Awad 1 run (Preston kick), 5:22.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
PV — McDonald, 9-35; Roah, 9-26.
E — Hogue, 10-122, 1 TD; Lopez, 3-37; Awad, 7-29, 1 TD.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
PV — Beuerlein, 7-14-0, 76.
E — Awad 12-22-1, 200, 3 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
PV — Mulkey, 3-35.
E — Bandaruk, 1-63; Irwin, 3-59, 3 TDs; Tripp, 4-58; Hogue 3-34.
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