HUNTINGTON BEACH – They are the two best teams in the Sunset League, according to the rankings.
So when Edison beat Los Alamitos, 17-14, on Thursday at Huntington Beach High, it is not an outrageous assumption to think this was for the Sunset League championship.
Edison coach Dave White did not see it that way.
“We’re 1-0,” said White, in his 30th season coaching the Chargers. “That’s better than being 0-1. We’ve got four more games to go.”
Edison might go those four games without the senior quarterback who started every game so far this season. Grant Lowary suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder in the first quarter and did not return.
“I think he’s out for a while,” White said. “I think it’s bad.”
Lowary’s replacement was good enough Thursday. Sophomore Griffin O’Connor went in, made some good throws, including a third-quarter touchdown pass to Shaun Colamonico. He finished 12 of 30 for 197 yards with an interception.
O’Connor made a couple of fine runs, too, including 34-yard touchdown jaunt late in the first quarter that put the Chargers ahead to stay.
O’Connor has received few snaps with Edison’s first-team offense in practice. He usually is the scout team quarterback, the player who tries to emulate what that week’s opposing quarterback will do.
At times, White said he had to improvise.
“I was drawing plays in the dirt for him,” White said.
And, O’Connor said, White was sketching plays in the air.
“He was putting fingers up and drawing routes routes,” O’Connor said. “I was like, ‘oh, geez, well, all right, let’s run it.’”
Defense won this game for Edison (3-3 overall). The Chargers defense stopped Los Alamitos (2-4) on three fourth-down conversion attempts in the second half. Junior linebacker Kenny Carmichael had three sacks.
Lowary exited the game because of a right-shoulder injury, on a sack, on Edison’s first possession. Los Alamitos linebacker Will Armstrong’s hit on Lowary knocked loose the ball and Armstrong recovered at the Edison 28.
Los Alamitos converted that into a touchdown, a 1-yard scoring run by quarterback Jack Telenko to put the Griffins on top, 7-0.
White could then have thought, “Great, here we go again.”
In their three losses – to Mater Dei, Servite and Tesoro – Edison was minus-2 in the turnover department for each game. That is, they lost two more turnovers than that gained in those games.
The acquisition of turnovers set up Edison’s 10 first-half points.
An interception by Colamonico at the Edison 20 resulted in a 46-yard field goal by Bobby Jinkins that make it 7-3
Edison’s Bowen Blake recovered a Los Alamitos fumble on the Griffins’ following possession at the Los Alamitos 42-yard line. Two plays later, O’Connor faked a handoff that fooled enough Griffins to help the quarterback run 34 yards for a touchdown that gave Edison a 10-7 lead that stood until the third quarter.
The Chargers made it 17-7 in the third quarter on the O’Connor-to-Colamonico touchdown. Los Alamitos converted a fumble recovery at the Edison 28 into a touchdown, a 2-yard run by R.J. Gonzalez, to trim the Edison lead to 17-14. That would conclude the scoring.
Edison plays host to Marina at Huntington Beach High on Thursday.
Los Alamitos plays host to Fountain Valley on Thursday at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
