Big Week 9 sets up drama for league finales

All the noise about Edison winning The Bell drowned out an important fact.

That Edison 24-0 victory over Fountain Valley in the "The Battle for the Bell" at Cal State Fullerton likely means the Chargers will be the top-seeded team in the CIF-Southern Section's Pac-5 Division playoffs.

Edison is the No. 1 team in the Pac-5 rankings. The Chargers, 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the Sunset League, play 1-8, 0-4 Marina next week. Even if Edison quarterback Matt Viles' left elbow keeps him from playing next week, Edison should beat Marina and take a 10-0 record in to the playoffs – and such a victory would not alter Edison's status as the top candidate for that No. 1 seed.

Who would Edison play? Maybe the No. 4 team from the Moore League, or the South Coast League's No. 3.

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. Much remains to be decided next week, the final week of the regular season.

We still have some plenty of playoff berths yet to be secured, and some league championships are up for grabs, too.

Dana Hills plays at Mission Viejo, next Friday; both are 4-0 in the South Coast League. La Habra and Fullerton play each other next Friday, at Fullerton High, and both are 4-0 in the Freeway League. Santiago plays at Garden Grove next Friday, with both taking 4-0 Garden Grove League records into that one, and Costa Mesa is at Laguna Beach in a battle of 3-0 teams in the Orange Coast League.

Anaheim plays Savanna in a league-championship decider in the Orange League.

Several teams secured at least a share of league championships, and those important designations as the No. 1 playoff representative in their leagues, this week. That's important: A league's No. 1 team gets a first-round home game, against another league's No. 3 or No. 4 team; a No. 2 team likely plays another league's No. 2, and it could be a home game or an away game; and the Nos. 3 and 4 teams definitely play on the road in the first round, and usually against another league's No. 1 team.

Tustin rolled past El Dorado, 30-0, to take the No. 1 spot in the Sunset. Cypress beat Pacifica, Thursday, to get No. 1 in the Empire and Westminster beat Segerstrom to take the top spot in the Golden West League.

Laguna Hills grabbed the No. 1 designation in the Pacific Coast League by beating Irvine; and Servite did the same in the Trinity League.

Servite, by beating JSerra next week, would be the first team to go undefeated in Trinity League play since the league was created in 2006. Servite has clinched at least a share of the league championship, the Friars' fifth consecutive league title.

Mater Dei still has a shot at a playoff berth, and needs to beat St. John Bosco next week to get in. If the Monarchs don't make it, it would be the first time they failed to make the playoffs since 1987.

The biggest game of next week, though, is Dana Hills at Mission Viejo. Mission is No. 2 in Orange County, and Dana is No. 5.

That will be a game with great atmosphere, but it would be hard to match the buzz around the Fountain Valley-Edison game. It was won by Edison's defense, which has so many excellent players like lineman Charles Burks, linebackers Steven Malone and Jordan Zumwalt, and defensive backs Luke Eddy and Michael Rivera who all had standout efforts against Fountain Valley.

Fountain Valley never got any offensive rhythm going, but give Edison's defense credit for that.

The Barons still are in the running for a playoff berth. There could be a three-way tie for second in the Sunset League, with Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos and Newport Harbor all at 3-2. A three-way coin flip would then have to determine which two get the league's Nos. 2 and 3 playoff berths, and the guess here is that the No. 4 team will get the Pac-5's lone at-large berth.

There remains a lot to be decided, as teams pursue CIF championship rings. There is a ring already at Edison, coming from the sound of The Bell of which Edison keeps possession for another year. The other type of ring could be Chargers property next month.