It was the largest margin of defeat for the Sailors since Santa Ana routed Newport Harbor, 48-0, in 1967. Since then, the Sailors had allowed an opponent to score more than 38 points only once when Santa Margarita scored 45 against the Newport Harbor in 1997.
“We just wanted to control the clock, control the tempo,” said Edison Coach Dave White. “We felt like we could do some things on them, short passes, conservative runs, because they’ve been playing great [defense] all year. They haven’t given up a lot of big plays. They haven’t turned the ball over much.”
Edison will be the league’s No. 1 playoff representative in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 division playoffs regardless of whether Esperanza (3-1 in league) wins or loses tonight agaisnt Fountain Valley, since Edison beat Esperanza, 9-7, Oct. 29.
Esperanza plays Fountain Valley tonight.
Newport Harbor (7-3, 3-2) can finish no worse than third place and it has the tiebreaker advantage that secures the league’ third and final guaranteed playfof berth.
Should Los Alamitos defeat Marina tonight, it would also be 3-2, but would be forced to gain an at-large playoff berth.
“These [Chargers] played well tonight, and they were on a mission to win a championship, and we seemed to be happy making the playoffs, so that was the difference in the two groups, probably tonight,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said after the game, which was also the Sailors’ homecoming.
The Sailors were outmuscled by Edison’s line on both sides of the ball, and Newport Harbor quarterback Andrew McDonald was sacked four times for a loss of 17 yards.
Edison quarterback Nick Crissman seemingly had eons to make his reads and throw the football.
Sailors’ running back Michael Helfrich led the team with 26 yards rushing.
