By Matthew Nguyen
On Friday night, the Fountain Valley High School Barons suffered a devastating loss to the Edison Chargers as they failed to find the endzone in a 0-40 defeat. This game marks the 16th consecutive year in which the Barons have fallen to the Chargers.
“It’s disappointing that we lost; I mean obviously, it’s a huge rivalry for the school and the community. It’s something you prepare for every year,” head coach Chris Anderson said. “[We wanted] to get the bell back.”
In an effort to try and shake up the game from the very start, Fountain Valley opened not with the traditional kickoff but with an unorthodox onside kick that set the tone for the remainder of the match.
Opening with such a high risk, high reward strategy was dangerous for the Barons. If successful, they could steal a possession away from the Chargers and completely claim the momentum; however, if failed, Edison opens the game with incredible field position and the opportunity to take complete control. Unfortunately for Fountain Valley, the latter became true.
After recovering the onside kick, the Chargers commandingly marched down the field to score on their opening drive as they opened the game with a quick 0-7 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, senior Brian Yoon fielded the ball and made it to his own 40-yard line before being brought down for an impressive return. The Barons failed to capitalize on the favorable field position as they punted it back to Edison after a quick three and out. The Chargers continued to dominate as they took the punt all the way back to the endzone, extending their lead 0-14.
On the following drive, the Barons began to have some offensive success as senior quarterback Jimmy Russell led the team to a pair of first downs. However, struggles on the offensive line lead to a sack that ended the drive and lead to another punt from Fountain Valley.
“We [have got] to start the game faster than we did, we can’t start off slow,” Russell said. “We [have] got to keep up the energy the whole game.”
The Barons continued to struggle for the rest of the half as offensively, they failed to consistently move the ball down the field, and defensively, they gave up three more scores. The Barons headed into halftime trailing 0-37.
The Chargers came into the second half with a ball-control strategy as they worked to eat the remainder of the clock and control the game. The Barons gave a valiant effort but still failed to find the endzone as the game concluded with a score of 0-40 in Edison’s favor.
