Oschman Powers Oilers Past Dana Hills

Dana Hills stayed with Huntington Beach for nearly 3 1/2 quarters Friday night, but a bruising ground game eventually wore down the Dolphins and the Oilers won, 21-3, in a nonleague game at Huntington Beach High.

Senior Russell Oschman had 39 carries and 213 yards rushing, 149 in the second half. He scored on an 18-yard run with 6 minutes 49 seconds remaining to extend the lead to 14-3 for Huntington Beach.

Huntington Beach (2-3), which had 137 yards rushing in the fourth quarter, sealed the victory with Rob Rossy’s 36-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds left.

The Dolphins (1-4) floundered on offense without starting quarterback Steve Vierra, who missed the game because of a foot injury.

Kyle Kelly and Terrell Vinson averaged a combined 209 yards rushing coming into the game, but Huntington Beach limited the Dana Hills running backs to 72 yards.

Reserve quarterback James Krulisky completed only one of 10 passes for three yards and Huntington Beach’s stingy defense limited Dana Hills to three first downs and only 91 total yards.

But the teams were tied, 0-0, at halftime, thanks largely to Dana Hills’ defense, which held Huntington Beach to 67 yards rushing in the first half and recorded four sacks, including two by James Vinson.

Then Huntington Beach simplified things.

“In the second half, we just ran straight at them,” Huntington Beach Coach Tony Ciarelli said.

The Oilers took the opening second-half kickoff and drove 92 yards in 12 plays, using mainly one punishing running play.

“We ran ’33 Blast’ for almost that whole drive,” Oschman said.

With Oschman and Rossy (eight carries, 89 yards) running left behind tackle Brian Ruziecki and guard Matt Ostiz on that play, the Oilers gained 73 yards rushing on the drive. Casey Ryder’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Josh Morales gave the Oilers a 7-0 lead.

Dana Hills countered with its only score of the game, using a 37-yard run by Vinson to get into position for a 32-yard field goal by Stephen Jennings with 4:53 remaining in the third quarter.

But Dana Hills would draw no closer.

“We hung in there defensively,” Dana Hills Coach Scott Orloff said, “but it was just one of those games.”