Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week: O’Connor leads Edison attack
When Griffin O’Connor was around 7 years old, he and his family moved from Fountain Valley to Huntington Beach. He figured out rather quickly where his future would be.
All O’Connor had to do was look over the wall in his backyard and there was Edison High.
“My house … backs up the football field,” O’Connor said. “I’ve always known I was going to go to Edison. I couldn’t wait to come here.”
O’Connor is in his junior season, and the 6-foot-3 quarterback has made the most of his opportunity with the Chargers. He took over as the quarterback in the Sunset League opener last year, and Edison hasn’t lost a league game during the stretch.
The next start for O’Connor is his ninth in league and it’s a special one for him. The league finale marks Dave White’s last Sunset League contest as the head coach, and O’Connor wants White to close out league perfect.
White, in his 31st and final year, is looking for his eighth unbeaten league title. The Chargers head into Friday’s home game with Huntington Beach at Cap Sheue Field 4-0 in league play.
The Chargers are trying to go undefeated in league for the second straight year. O’Connor has been the team’s signal caller during the perfect run.
O’Connor has been nearly flawless in his last two starts, passing for 719 yards and 10 touchdowns.
O’Connor is also coming off his best outing of his career. He threw for 421 yards and five touchdowns, and rushed for a touchdown in Edison’s 56-12 rout of Fountain Valley in the Battle for the Bell rivalry game at Orange Coast College last week.
Those stats O’Connor produced, on 20 of 26 passing, came in the first half against the Barons. He didn’t get to play in the second half, as was the case the week before in a 52-14 win over Marina. Against the Vikings, O’Connor completed each of his 13 attempts.
“I want to be able to play the whole game,” said O’Connor, who noted he has an offer from Indiana State, an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision program. “But I love seeing our JV guys go in there and kick butt.”
The Chargers are ripping apart defenses through the air. O’Connor has as many as five wide receivers he can go to on any given play. There’s Shaun Colamonico, David Atencio, EJ Ginnis, McCade Barrett and Chad Fisser.
The Chargers got Colamonico back last week. The senior was out the previous four games with a hairline fracture of the fibula.
Despite not having Colamonico around for almost half of the regular season, O’Connor and Colamonico didn’t miss a beat. O’Connor connected with Colamonico four times for 82 yards and two touchdowns. The first touchdown, an 18-yarder, helped put Edison up, 28-0, with less than two minutes left in the opening quarter.
“We play with four receivers every play, and sometimes we play five, so I don’t know if you’re a defense who you key on really,” White said. “They’re all catching touchdowns. We had three guys [Atencio, Ginnis and Barrett] with over 100 yards a couple of weeks ago [against Marina], and we were close again last week. Four receivers [Atencio, Colamonico, Barrett and Ginnis] scored touchdowns [against Fountain Valley]. We’re spreading the ball around pretty well right now.”
O’Connor is firing on all cylinders, even though running back Jack Carmichael missed his second game last week with a shoulder injury.
Nick Nguyen, a defensive tackle, has filled in for Carmichael in the backfield. While he hasn’t run much, seven times for 53 yards and a touchdown, with Carmichael sidelined, White said Nguyen has done well in pass protection.
The other players O’Connor credits for keeping him on his feet are left tackle Ryan Osterkamp, left guard Garrett Weichman, center Michael Saffell, right guard Griffin Kosick and right tackle Josh Hadlock. Balance on offense is what O’Connor and White want, especially with the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs around the corner.
Edison, which is 8-1 overall and ranked No. 2 in the division, expects to earn one of the top two seeds on Sunday, when the section releases the playoff pairings. A year ago, when O’Connor became the quarterback after starter Grant Lowary went down with a shoulder injury a couple of plays into the league opener, an injury-plagued Edison went on to lose to Rancho Cucamonga, 30-17, in the first round of the West Valley Division playoffs.
O’Connor hasn’t forgotten about the early postseason exit at home.
“It motivates me,” said O’Connor, who has passed for 2,027 yards and 22 touchdowns, with only three interceptions this year. “We can’t have that stop in the first round of the playoffs.
“We really want to go out and finish with a bang, especially for Coach White.”
Griffin O’Connor
Born: April 4, 1999
Hometown: Huntington Beach
Height: 6-foot-3
Weight: 196 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Junior
Coach: Dave White
Favorite food: Sushi
Favorite movie: “Step Brothers”
Favorite athletic moment: “My receiver, David Atencio, tore his ACL [in June]. Just to see him overcome his injury.”
Week in review: O’Connor completed 20 of 26 passes for 421 yards and five touchdowns, and rushed for a one-yard touchdown in the Chargers’ 56-12 win against Fountain Valley in the Battle for the Bell rivalry game.
