Edison football hangs on for big win at San Clemente
SAN CLEMENTE — The Edison High football defense was swarming all game long.
The Chargers recovered two fumbles and also stopped two San Clemente fourth-and-one attempts.
With the Tritons trying to drive and score the go-ahead touchdown on Friday night, Edison once again denied the hosts.
The result was a hard-fought 21-16 nonleague victory for the Chargers, who stayed unbeaten at 5-0 headed into their bye week and handed the Tritons (4-1) their first loss of the season.
This is Edison’s first 5-0 start since the 2009 team, which had an undefeated regular season and advanced to the Pac-5 Division championship game.
“I just feel like, defensively, that was Edison football,” Edison coach Jeff Grady said. “We had those guys flying around, and it was a team effort, it was 11 guys … To me, that’s always the sign of a good Edison team, when it’s great team defense and team offense.”
Edison had to hang on after taking a 21-9 advantage late in the third quarter, when senior quarterback Parker Awad connected with receiver Ashton Hurley on a 60-yard touchdown pass over the middle. It was the second scoring play of the game between Awad and Hurley, who now has seven touchdown grabs this season.
After Edison’s passing game struggled in the first half, Awad had seven straight completions to start the second half.
“He was delivering left and right, shots all the way down the field,” Hurley said. “That money ball to me all the way down the field was the most perfect pass I’ve ever seen. I saw the defense shift to cover one, so I saw the guy roll up on me. I knew I had him beat if I could make a move around him. It was just me against him, and I felt like I could win that battle. I took it, and Parker delivered a great ball. Great protection as well.”
San Clemente pulled closer when Tritons junior quarterback Broderick Redden scored on his second one-yard keeper of the game, pulling his team within five points with 7:30 remaining in the game.
San Clemente got a standout night from senior running back Blake Allen, who had 25 carries for 168 yards. But the Chargers were able to limit his big plays for the most part, though he did get free for a 42-yard scamper on the final Tritons scoring drive and also had carries of 24 and 18 yards.
“Our plan this week was to stop that run,” said Edison senior defensive end Jake Giles, who recorded 2 ½ quarterback sacks. “We knew this was going to be a defensive battle. Everybody on our defense knew that we were about to play as physical as possible.”
Edison had to punt the ball back to San Clemente late, then a muffed punt by Edison gave the ball back to the Tritons. But three plays later, Edison’s Jackson Irwin poked the ball free from behind as Redden tried to scramble, and teammate Logan Gregory recovered at the Edison 32-yard line with 1:49 left in the game.
The Chargers went three-and-out, though they did force San Clemente coach Jaime Ortiz to burn all three of his timeouts.
Needing a touchdown, the Tritons got the ball back on their own 34-yard line with 1:24 left. They converted a fourth down near midfield on Redden’s pass to Thomas Hartanov. Two plays later, Mason York’s tackle of Redden appeared to cause a fumble that Gregory recovered, but it was ruled an incomplete pass.
On fourth-and-15 at the Edison 42-yard line, a pass to Mason Ord in the closing seconds came up short of the first-down marker, and the Chargers had secured the win.
Both teams scored a season-low point total in the defensive struggle.
“We found a way to get it done,” Grady said. “Sometimes it feels like holy smokes, you know, we’re just trying to give it away. But obviously, that’s not the case. We just kept playing.”
Carter Hogue had 94 yards rushing and a touchdown for Edison.
Defensively, the Chargers also got sacks from Irwin and Dylan Walters, while Irwin, Gregory and Malachi Pierce all had tackles for a loss.
Tucker Tripp stepped up to stuff an Allen fourth-and-one run early in the fourth quarter, as the play ended up as a two-yard loss. Hurley recovered a San Clemente red-zone fumble in the second quarter on another key play.
Edison returns from its bye week on Sept. 30, with a Sunset League opener against Huntington Beach at Cap Sheue Field.
“We feel real good to go into Sunset League undefeated,” Giles said. “We’re ready to go undefeated again [in league] and put up a great game against Los Al.”
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Nonleague
Edison 21, San Clemente 16
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Edison 7 – 0 – 14 – 0 – 21
San Clemente 3 – 6 – 0 – 7 – 16
FIRST QUARTER
SC – Trager 34 FG, 9:46.
E – Hogue 1 run (Preston kick), 4:07.
SECOND QUARTER
SC – Redden 1 run (kick missed), 6:41.
THIRD QUARTER
E – Hurley 5 pass from Awad (Preston kick), 3:58.
E – Hurley 60 pass from Awad (Preston kick), 0:33.
FOURTH QUARTER
SC – Redden 1 run (Trager kick), 7:19.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
E – Hogue, 21-94.
SC – Allen, 25-168.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
E – Awad, 12-21-0, 170, 2 TDs.
SC – Redden, 15-30-0, 124.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
E – Hurley, 4-77, 2 TDs.
SC – Kotiranta, 3-33.
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