LA HABRA — Huntington Beach had looked forward to its chance to take on La Habra’s high-powered offense, but for much of the first half, it was rendered a non-participant in Friday’s game.
The Oilers’ junior Brady Edmunds, the Ohio State-committed quarterback, and his assortment of weapons made La Habra’s offense a non-factor, converting late in the half, then striking at will in the third quarter.
Huntington Beach needed less than four cumulative minutes and a total of 13 plays to find the end zone on their four scoring drives, leading to a key road win over the defending Epsilon League championsd.
Huntington Beach’s Brady Edmunds threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns against La Habra on Friday.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
Edmunds threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns, as Huntington Beach defeated La Habra 35-30 to extend its winning streak to five games.
Huntington Beach (6-1, 2-0 in the Epsilon League) was coming off a 65-10 win over Laguna Hills in its homecoming game, but Edmunds said the Oilers had a long memory when it came to losing to La Habra in the final seconds a year ago.
“We had a good time after that [homecoming] win. …,” Edmunds said. “[Then] we put [the tape of the prior La Habra game] on the big screen, and we kind of went silent. They remembered that feeling and everything like that. I think we played with that feeling tonight. We played with a bad taste in our mouth, and we flew around and we were physical, and we came out with the victory.”
Following a 12-play, 69-yard drive of nearly eight minutes that ended with a 12-yard touchdown run by Highlanders quarterback DJ Mitchell, the Oilers struck up the band with a big special teams play. Steel Kurtz returned the ensuing kickoff 73 yards for the initial points for Huntington Beach. He would be heard from again.
Huntington Beach’s Steel Kurtz (12) looks for open space along the sideline during a kick return touchdown against La Habra.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
The quick-strike attack took the cue. Huntington Beach, which had run a total of eight offensive plays up to that point, got the ball back with 73 seconds left before the break. Three plays later, Edmunds hit Dylin Bruce in stride along the Oilers’ sideline for a 63-yard touchdown and a 14-10 lead at halftime.
Matthew Hatchette, the Oilers’ first-year head coach, called the game a “heavyweight fight” and referred to the execution in the two-minute drill as “a big deal.”
“I think it was probably the most influential piece in the first half,” Hatchette said. “We answered the bell. We’re not going to always get all of our possessions. We don’t always get to run 25 plays in the first half. We just have to stay the course, right? Control the controllables. When we get a chance to make a play, then we have to go make the play.”
Huntington Beach’s Nathan Sammartano (20) breaks free for a 50-yard run against La Habra on Friday in an Epsilon League game.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
Huntington Beach was largely contained in the running game, but Nathan Sammartano ripped off 50 of the team’s 54 rushing yards on one carry coming out of the locker room. Edmunds made good on the red-zone trip with an 8-yard scoring connection to Troy Foster. The Colorado State-bound wide receiver ran his season totals to 997 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“There were a lot of ups and downs during this game, but I feel like this was a good game to just teach us to persevere,” said Foster, who had 11 catches for 143 yards. “There’s going to be tough challenges along the way. The road’s not all going to be [blowout] wins. We’re going to play these tougher opponents, and we just got to know how to respond when bad things happen.”
Kurtz, an all-purpose player committed to Idaho State, was called upon when the Oilers went into their bag of tricks. A double-pass play wound up with Kurtz testing his arm, the heave covering 50 yards in the air and finding Foster at the 10-yard line for a 50-yard touchdown.
“I didn’t know that I could throw it that far,” Kurtz said in disbelief. “We’ve been practicing it for three or four weeks now, and I’ve just been waiting for it to be called. Brady threw it to me, and nobody was guarding Troy within 20 yards. I was like, ‘I just got to throw it as far as I can.’”
Huntington Beach’s Dylin Bruce sprints toward the end zone for a touchdown in the third quarter against La Habra on Friday.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
Huntington Beach had built a 28-10 advantage at that point, and it again enjoyed a three-possession lead, 35-17, after Edmunds and Bruce linked up on a 46-yard score at the midway mark of the third quarter. Bruce finished with five catches for 138 yards.
La Habra (5-2, 1-1) did not go quietly. In fact, the Highlanders, who won last year’s meeting at ‘Cap’ Sheue Field, 37-35, on a last-second field goal, had a chance to take a late lead that may have resulted in an eerily similar scoreline.
Johnny Yadrick’s coverage sack had just earned the Oilers’ defense a chance to get off the field, but on fourth-and-15, Mitchell unleashed a pass over the middle. Bryce Vasquez had a step on three members of the Huntington Beach secondary, but the pass was juggled near midfield and fell incomplete.
Huntington Beach’s Jimmel Champion (1) tackles La Habra’s Bryce Vasquez (6) on Friday in an Epsilon League game.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
Vasquez, who led the Highlanders receiving corps with eight catches for 90 yards, reeled in a touchdown as part of the comeback attempt. Bobby Brooks’ goal-line rushing score closed the deficit to 35-30 with 7:31 remaining.
“This is a fun league,” longtime La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta said. “How many times do you get to play against an Ohio State-commit quarterback? I mean, come on. It’s a fun league. They had some really good skill players. …
“All the games are big, in my opinion, so it wasn’t like we had to circle Huntington Beach. Everybody knows. The kids know, both teams know it’s a big game. If you’re going to win the Epsilon League title, number one, you’re going to have to go through the defending champs, so it’s a big game. … It was close last year. We know how good they are.”
La Habra’s DJ Mitchell (1) looks for a receiver against Huntington Beach in an Epsilon League game on Friday.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
Caden Clark and Kurtz each added a sack for the Huntington Beach defense, which also received a key pass breakup from leading tackler Logan Gray (eight tackles), who knocked down a fourth-down pass at the line of scrimmage with La Habra in the red zone on its first possession.
Huntington Beach finds itself tied with Crean Lutheran (7-0, 2-0) atop the Epsilon League standings. The Oilers, who play host to Foothill (2-5, 1-1) on Friday, will travel to take on the Saints on Oct. 24.
When asked what a league championship would mean to the team, Edmunds noted the Oilers had been in the Sunset League for a while before moving to the Epsilon League, “so I can’t tell you when the last time Huntington ever won league was…I think that alone, just being able to beat big opponents. [La Habra] was a big opponent. Crean Lutheran is going to be a big opponent, so being able to show that we can win those big games, going to the playoffs — whether we’re Division 2, Division 3, Division 4 — as long as we beat these big teams, it’s just momentum.”
Huntington Beach’s Troy Foster (4) had 11 catches for 143 yards against La Habra in an Epsilon League game on Friday.
(Jeremy Westerbeck)
Epsilon League
Huntington Beach 35, La Habra 30
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Huntington Beach 0 – 14 – 21 – 0 — 35
La Habra 0 – 10 – 14 – 6 — 30
FIRST QUARTER
None.
SECOND QUARTER
LH — Meyer 34 FG, 11:55.
LH — Mitchell 12 run (Meyer kick), 4:15.
HB — Kurtz 73 kick return (Dunham kick), 4:01.
HB — Bruce 63 pass from Edmunds (Dunham kick), 0:25.
THIRD QUARTER
HB — Foster 8 pass from Edmunds (Dunham kick), 11:07.
HB — Foster 50 pass from Kurtz (Dunham kick), 7:41.
LH — Rogers 29 pass from Mitchell (Meyer kick), 6:24.
HB — Bruce 46 pass from Edmunds (Dunham kick), 5:41.
LH — Vasquez 14 pass from Mitchell (Meyer kick), 2:23.
FOURTH QUARTER
LH — Brooks 1 run (Mitchell run failed), 7:31.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
HB — Sammartano, 5-53; Edmunds, 4-6; Kurtz, 1-0; Santillan, 3-(-1); Villanueva, 1-(-1); Team, 1-(-3).
LH — Mata’Utia, 16-85; Brooks, 9-36, 1 TD; Mitchell, 6-15, 1 TD; Vasquez, 1-2; Rodriguez, 1-1; Rogers, 1-(-7).
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
HB — Edmunds, 18-21-0, 250, 3 TDs; Kurtz, 1-1-0, 50, 1 TD.
LH — Mitchell, 18-32-0, 226, 2 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
HB — Foster, 11-143, 2 TDs; Bruce, 5-138, 2 TDs; Kurtz, 2-17; Villanueva, 1-2.
LH — Vasquez, 8-90, 1 TD; Rogers, 5-82, 1 TD; Coyne, 2-18; Brooks, 1-17; Raphiel, 1-15; Mata’Utia, 1-4.