Edison wins Bash at the Beach passing tournament

The Edison High football team couldn’t have capped summer play any better way.

On Saturday at Edison, the Chargers won the Bash at the Beach 7-on-7 passing tournament by defeating Mater Dei, 29-20, in the final. In the championship game, quarterback Alek Torgersen led the Chargers to four scores and also threw a two-point conversion pass.

The Chargers won the tournament for the fifth time in its 14-year history, and first since 2009. This year’s event again drew 16 teams, several of which are considered among the top squads in the Southland.

It was a strong finish for Edison, which didn’t start out too well in the summer. The tournament ended summer play for the Chargers, who begin preseason camp Aug. 13 and open the regular season Aug. 31 at Garfield of Los Angeles.

While the Edison offense was winning its own tournament, further south in Rancho Santa Margarita a portion of the Edison defense — the linemen— won the Santa Margarita linemen tournament.

Saturday’s results revealed a lot to Coach Dave White.

“We hadn’t had a very good summer but we just put everything together in this tournament,” said White, who is in his 27th year as head coach. “We went 6-0 and that’s hard to do in this tourney. There were some really good teams and some really good quarterbacks competing out here. I’m real pleased with how we did, and for our linemen to go to Santa Margarita and with that tournament, that says a lot.

“It was a great weekend for the Chargers.”

Edison’s undefeated run began Saturday morning with pool-play victories against Etiwanda, South Hills and St. John Bosco. In Gold division championship play later in the day, the Chargers defeated JSerra in the quarterfinals, then took down Valencia of Valencia in the semifinals. Valencia had rolled into the championship semifinals and was undefeated (5-0), but Edison won, 32-0.

Mater Dei also went undefeated up to the final. The Monarchs reached the title game by defeating Trinity League foes Santa Margarita and St. John Bosco in Gold division play.

Torgersen had a solid tournament. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior, who White said carries a 4.1 GPA and is being looked at by several Ivy League schools, only threw one interception in six games.

“Alek had a great day,” White said. “He was as good as any quarterback out there. He throws a really nice, deep ball, and he was really accurate.”

White had previously felt the Chargers would favor the run in the fall. A new starting quarterback, and a new receiving corps, led to that mindset. After Saturday, he had a new outlook on his offense.

Torgersen’s main targets Saturday were senior Trevor Borkowski, juniors Jeremy Maxwell and Kiante Goudeau, and senior tight end Trenton Aschoff. Borkowski was Edison’s leading receiver Saturday, Maxwell and Goudeau rotated at receiver in addition to starting at cornerback, and Aschoff made several big receptions in the afternoon session.

Defensively, the Chargers were sharp and forced four turnovers in the title game against Mater Dei.

“I was real impressed by all of our guys,” White said. “For the last six months, we’ve talked about how we’d be more of a run-oriented team. Now, I think we’ll be a more balanced team this fall. Defensively, I thought we’d be real good against the rush, but wasn’t sure how we’d do as a pass rush team. We had different guys come through (Saturday), and our safeties and linebackers played well. I think we’ll be tough on defense.

“Winning this tournament shows me that we have the capability to be a good team. How we ended the summer is a major improvement, from the way that we started out.”

michael.sciacca@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeSciacca