The bracket-makers for Edison’s “Battle at the Beach” passing tournament on Saturday didn’t do Los Alamitos any favors.
In the Griffins’ bracket was defending Open Division state champion St. John Bosco, Open division regional runner up Centennial of Corona, and 2012 Division 2 state champion Serra of Gardena.
Los Alamitos went 1-2 in group play and 1-3 overall, but secured one of the biggest upsets of the day when it defeated St. John Bosco, 20-19, in the first round of pool play.
Leading the way was junior quarterback Jack Telenko, who looked stellar against a young, inexperienced St. John Bosco defense.
Telenko is transfer from Tesoro.
“He played well,” Griffins coach John Barnes said. “That was his first test under pressure and he came through, especially at the end.”
Receiver Jacob Gasser was impressive as well, and Barnes said Gasser has been improving throughout the summer.
JSERRA LOOKING TO REPLACE EUGENIO
It was a fairly successful day for JSerra, which went 2-2 and lost in a Gold Division play-in game against Santa Margarita.
Ethan Aguayo and Isaiah Diego-Willams are expected to help replace star receiver Dante Pettis, who the Lions lost to graduation, but both were out due to injury.
The hole left by standout running back Casey Eugenio is one JSerra, who won the Air Strike tournament at Dana Hills earlier this summer, will need to fill, too. And as of now, coach Jim Hartigan has no answers for who will do it.
Hartigan said D.J. Bailey and Aaron Matthews are possible candidates.
Despte the huge losses of Pettis and Eugenio, Hartigan feels at this point of summer, this year’s team is better than last year’s team, which won two Trinity League games for the first time in school history.
He won’t have answers regarding the running back position until the season nears.
EDISON SEARCHING FOR CONSISTENCY
In a setting Edison usually does well in, the Chargers dropped their last three games of the day to finish the tournament with a 1-3 record. They lost to Mater Dei in a Gold Diviision play-in game.
Edison coach Dave White was quick to point out that wide receiver/defensive back Jake Favreau had an impressive summer for the Chargers, who will start their dead period later this week.
“Other than that, the rest of us were kind of up and down,” White said.
The Chargers went 1-3, but that included a loss in overtime to Narbonne, by four to tournament champion Hart of Newhall and on the final play of the game to Mater Dei.
White is confident in his offensive and defensive lines. If those components are operating at full strength when the season rolls around, the skill players will have time to gel.
