Postgame Q&A with Edison's Nick Crissman

The final line Monday night for Edison quarterback Nick Crissman: 14 of 28, 127 yards, one touchdown with no interceptions. The hard line: Edison 9, Esperanza 7.

Crissman and the Chargers’ effort against the previously unbeaten Aztecs, coupled with Newport Harbor’s victory against Los Alamitos, means there is a four-way tie in the Sunset League.

Q: What happened early? You didn’t seem to have much time to operate on your first few drives.
A: They (Esperanza) run a lot of different blitzes. It was the first time we could practice, really, and be together and play football in four days. I think we just needed to get going a little bit. So the first quarter was rough. Once we got used to playing football again, our O-line really stepped up big. They were really physical tonight.

With the blitzes they run, they run a lot of man coverage. We knew, if you pick off their man guarding (our receiver), he’s going to be in the open field. We tried to play off their blitzes and man coverage and based our game plan off of that.

Q: Because of the surgery and missing a couple games, this is still somewhat early in the season for you. How are you feeling?
A: I’m starting to feel like back to normal. I’m back to playing football. It was kind of hard at the beginning of the year. But I felt really good tonight. It was just fun.

Q: You had a lot of time to think about this game. With the layoff and a chance to get back into league title contention, what were you thinking about?
A: Over the weekend we were just making sure everyone was going over the game plan, mentally. We couldn’t do a lot, physically, so we wanted to make sure we were mentally prepared. We knew this was our one chance at winning the league championship. We really want that league championship and we played from our hearts tonight.

Q: What did you do to prepare, physically?
A: We were just trying to run and stay in shape, play catch with the receivers as much as possible, maybe get a little lifting in on your own. Push-ups, sit-ups, whatever you can do on your own. Just try and make due with the situation.

Q: What does this victory mean for the rest of the season?
A: I believe we’ve taken a big step, as a team. We’ve proven we have faith in each other, that we can win a game when it’s down to the wire in those tough situations. We’re relying on each other a lot more now because we’re closer as a team. It’s really helping us out to rely on each other more.

Contact the writer: amaya@ocregister.com