COSTA MESA – The Bell stays at Edison.
EJ Ginnis had two of Edison’s four interceptions, Miguel Moreida returned another one for a touchdown, and Shaun Colamonico scored on a 70-yard pass play and blocked a punt as the Chargers beat Fountain Valley, 33-7, Friday in a Sunset League game – and not just any Sunset League game – at Orange Coast College.
The annual Edison-Fountain Valley “Battle for the Bell” is one of the better rivalries in Southern California high school sports. It was a full house at 7,600-capacity Orange Coast College, the game having sold out earlier in the week.
Edison has won The Bell game 11 years in a row and has a 33-14-1 lead in the series.
“We played our hearts out,” said Colamonico, a 5-foot-10, 155-pound junior. “We came out focused, trying to win The Bell, and we did, like we always do.”
POSTGAME TALK: How Edison kept The Bell
The Bell is an old train bell that was reconditioned and introduced in 1975 as the trophy that is the property of the Edison-Fountain Valley winner.
The Chargers clinched a share of the Sunset League championship. Edison is 4-0 in league. The Chargers play at Newport Harbor Friday in their final game of the regular season.
Edison will go to the CIF-Southern Section West Valley Division playoffs as the Sunset’s No. 1 representative. That designation guarantees the Chargers a playoffs first-round home game against another league’s No. 3 team or against an at-large team.
Fountain Valley is 6-3. The Barons, 3-1 in league, had won six in a row. They will go to the West Valley playoffs as the Sunset’s No. 2 team.
The Chargers have prevailed through injuries to several key players, and they got another one Friday. Leading receiver Garrett White injured his left knee in the second quarter and did not return. White, son of Edison coach Dave White, said he believed it is a hyperextension.
White caught one of sophomore quarterback Griffin O’Connor’s two touchdown passes in the second quarter.
Edison’s first touchdown was helped by good field position – Ginnis’ first interception that put the Chargers at the Fountain Valley 39-yard line. A 21-yard completion from O’Connor to White put the ball on the Fountain Valley 2, from where Turner Maza ran it in for the touchdown. The extra-point kick missed, leaving the Chargers with a 6-0 lead.
On Fountain Valley’s ensuing possesion, Colamonico’s punt block gave the Chargers the ball at the Fountain Valley 20. On the next play, O’Connor, rolling left, passed to White for a 20-yard touchdown to make it 13-0.
Fountain Valley scored on a 25-yard pass from Chad Olberding to Moe Falealii to make it 13-7.
The Chargers pushed their lead to 20-7 on a 70-yard pass from O’Connor to Colamonico, who made a running, over-the-shoulder catch at the Fountain Valley 30 and then ran unopposed to the end zone.
Moreida’s 43-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter made it 26-7.
Ginnis’ second interception set up Maza’s second touchdown run, also for 2 yards, in the fourth quarter to create the final 33-7 score.
“It’s the Bell Game, man,” Ginnis said. “It’s a big week.”
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
