The Edison boys soccer team has been consistently inconsistent this season.
There have been times when the Chargers looked like a team that returned the key leaders from a lineup that nearly reached last winter’s CIF-SS championship game. But there have been moments, too, in the past six weeks when Edison has looked like a bunch of varsity rookies.
“It has been a little bit of our seniors not playing up to a senior standard,” Edison coach Charlie Breneman said. “They were playing like they didn’t need to be the guys who need to take over a game.”
On Wednesday, the Chargers played up to Breneman’s expectations, cruising past visiting Newport Harbor, 4-0, in the Sunset League opener for both teams.
Edison (8-3-2, 1-0) scored all of their goals in the first half, and the final two came from Dominic Bair, giving him six goals in his past four games.
“We wanted to start well, and we trained really, really well,” Breneman said. “We were enthusiastic to get after the game.”
The Chargers wasted little time taking control of the match, holding a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute when Sam Kemper knocked in a corner kick.
And 10 minutes later, Edison went up 2-0, as Garen Balikcioglu set up the goal by playing the ball to Jeff Wood as he made a run to the right corner. Newport Harbor goalkeeper Avery Ferguson went to the top of the box to try to make a play, but Wood chipped the ball over him, and it rolled into an empty next.
Dan Suzuki slid in front of the goal, attempting to clear the ball for the Sailors (2-4-5, 0-1), but he got there a second too late.
“We were (asleep) the first half,” Newport Harbor coach Carlos Alcazar said. “We have to work on encouraging each other. We woke up the second half, but by then it was too late.”
The Chargers gave the Sailors few scoring chances in posting their fifth shutout of the season. Newport Harbor’s best chance to chip into the Chargers’ lead came in the 54th minute when Alex Avila slipped past his mark, but Brendan Fix made his only save of the game for the Chargers.
Also in the Sunset League:
No. 9 Fountain Valley 2, Huntington Beach 0: Raymond Hernandez and David Volkert each scored for the host Barons (10-2-1, 1-0).
Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com