Edison wins Bell battle; Cavs claim title

By OC Tribune Staff on October 25, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

EDISON’S DEFENSE dominated Fountain Valley in the Chargers’ 56-7 win over the Barons Friday night at LeBard Stadium (Orange County Tribune photo by Christopher Abdelmalek).

By Christopher Abdelmalek

Quarterback Braeden Boyles led the Edison Chargers to an impressive victory over their long time rivals the Barons of Fountain Valley High School 56-7 in the “Battle for the Bell” at LeBard Stadium in Costa Mesa on Friday night.

Boyles threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns; both were deep throws to wide receiver Cole Koffler.

For the 15th straight year the Chargers have defeated the Barons in the Bell game. This long-standing tradition always seems to bring out the big plays on the field. This year is no different as the Chargers absolutely dominated the Barons in all three phases of the game, offensively, defensively and on special teams.

Boyles was awarded with the MVP honors in the game for his two touchdown passes to Koffler, one for 73 yards and the other for 86 yards. Both passes traveled at least 30 yards in the air before connecting with Koffler who did the rest.

“Proud of how hard they competed,” said Edison Coach Jeff Grady of his team’s performance Friday night. The defense swarmed the Barons all evening giving them absolutely no room to work with. Aside from the Barons first drive, which was aided by untimely penalties by the Edison defense, the White and Blue could not muster anything on offense putting up less then 100 yards of total offense.

The offense was just as successful as the defense tonight. Boyles commanded the offense with poise, and his running backs, All-star Mike Walters and the Swiss Army knife Tanner Nelson. “We did a really good job up front,” Grady said of the running backs. Nelson started the scoring off with a 32-yard run right up the middle of the field. “They aren’t ripping off those big runs unless we are getting a push up front and we definitely did that tonight.”

He finished with four carries for 66 yards and two touchdowns and he also threw for one, a 56-yard strike to receiver Nico Brown.

Walters is the primary back for the Chargers carrying the ball 15 times for 99 yards and three touchdowns. Listed at 6’2’’ and 225, Walters is an imposing force on the field as he takes hits straight on as opposed to Nelson who is more of the change of pace back for the team in Green and Gold.

This victory puts the Chargers at (6-3, 3-1) and in second place in the Sunset League with a pivotal match up against Newport Harbor (7-2, 2-2) next week on Halloween. The Barons (3-6, 0-4) face off against Huntington Beach High School (1-8, 0-4) on Nov. 1. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m. kickoffs.

Cavaliers get a piece of GGL title

Santiago cemented no worse than a tie for the Garden Grove League title with a 35-7 win over La Quinta. The Cavaliers are 6-3 and 4-0, while the Aztecs are 3-6 and 2-2.

To claim the outright title, the Cavs will have to defeat Loara (7-2, 3-1) next Thursday.

Western had to go to overtime to defeat Laguna Beach, 56-49. The Pioneers build a two-touchdown lead at halftime, but the Breakers rallied to tie it at 49-all at the end of the fourth quarter.

WHS is now 8-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac 4 League. LBHS goes to 5-4 and 1-1.

Here are the results from local prep football games. Scores will be posted as they are received.