Huntington Beach football tops Glendora in CIF Division 6 opener
An inspired defensive performance and a little bit of big-play offense triggered Huntington Beach’s first CIF Southern Section football playoff victory in a decade, and now the Oilers get a shot at the No. 1 seed.
Brady Edmunds hooked up twice with Hunter Gray for go-ahead touchdowns, Brandon Soleau and Gavin Seguin were pivotal in frustrating Glendora’s attack after its quick start, and Noah Jover kept the visiting Tartans’ big, University of Washington-bound tight end under wraps most of the night. Huntington Beach held on for a 29-21 first-round triumph Friday night to set up a home showdown in next week’s Division 6 quarterfinals with top-seeded Ontario Christian.
The eighth-seeded Oilers (5-6) overcame two deficits in the first half, prevented another with Soleau’s blocked field goal in the fourth quarter, followed that with a lengthy touchdown drive to extend a one-point edge — finished on an impromptu Edmunds bootleg — and then superbly defended four passes into the end zone, or nearly so, at the finish of a tight thriller.
“It was a good one,” Huntington Beach coach Brett Brown said. “Our kids battled. They have a ton of heart, and they just overcame things. Our effort was unbelievable. ... Our kids were really locked in this week, more than they’ve ever been, and it was impressive.”
It arrived a month shy of 10 years since an Oilers team had last won a postseason game — a 42-28 victory over Newport Harbor in the Southwest Division title game at Angel Stadium, with Brown as offensive coordinator — and followed first-round defeats in 2016, 2017, 2019 and last season. That 2013 team, like this year’s, finished fifth in the Sunset League.
“This means a lot,” said Jover, who limited 6-foot-5, 230-pound, 57-catch tight end Decker DeGraaf to five receptions, 76 yards and one touchdown, denying him in the end zone several times. “We’re probably going to go celebrate with our friends, and we’re going to get this [championship] ring.”
To have that opportunity, the Oilers next week must get past top seed Ontario Christian (9-2), itself a 45-13 winner over Dana Hills. They’ve played the tougher schedule — with six opponents, four of them in Sunset League play, above 30 in Calpreps’ playoff bracket-determining computer ratings — than has the Ironwood League runner-up. The Knights have faced just two teams with a rating higher than 20, none over 30, and lost to both. Huntington Beach’s rating was boosted by Friday’s win from 18.8 to 23.3.
Tyler Young ran for 95 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, surpassing 1,000 yards for the season on the Oilers’ final drive and pushing his total to 1,022 with a 13-yard plow through Glendora’s defense to set up Edmunds’ clinching 2-yard scoring run.
“I think we have a special group of boys,” said Gray, who caught seven passes for 164 yards. “We have, like, 30 seniors, and we all have been really close together, so I think it’s going to be really good for this playoff run.”
It was back-and-forth until the defenses took over in the second half. The Tartans (6-5) pulled ahead right away, with Simon Zwick sprinting 66 yards on the fifth play from scrimmage, but the Oilers answered quickly through Edmunds and Gray.
Edmunds, a freshman who completed 13 of 22 passes for 274 yards, connected with the senior receiver, who followed his one-handed, 43-yard catch under double coverage at the 8-yard line by getting open in the end zone on the next play. Young’s two-point conversion run provided an 8-7 advantage.
“Brady’s a stud,” Brown said. “He’s an unbelievable leader ... and Hunter’s our go-to guy. Whenever we needed a play, we knew that we could count on him.”
Huntington Beach, which overcame 120 yards in penalties, scored again on its next possession, with Young going 28 yards into Glendora territory on a screen pass and Steel Kurtz making a leaping grab in the red zone to set up Young’s 6-yard run for an eight-point lead near the end of the first quarter.
Glendora answered with a 12-play drive, pulling even as Eric Najarro found DeGraaf deep in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown, then ran for the two-point conversion. Hunter Lemos’ 42-yard field goal gave the Tartans an 18-15 lead on their next possession, but the Oilers took a four-point lead into halftime after Gray got behind the secondary for a 23-yard touchdown 50 seconds before the break.
Glendora struggled after losing Zwick, who ran for 742 yards this year, to a quadriceps injury from a late hit at the end of the first quarter and was down to its third- and fourth-string running backs for much of the second quarter — and an end-of-half drive to the red zone — when Matthew Jordan left with a knee injury.
The Tartans gained just 19 more yards on the ground, most of them by Martin after he returned wearing a knee brace, and Najarro endured bleak spells — the worst with seven successive incompletions at the end of the first half, the last four into the end zone — and hit on just six of 15 attempts after halftime.
Credit Huntington Beach’s defense. Najarro was chased constantly from the pocket, with Soleau leading the charge and Seguin coming up with two big fourth-quarter sacks. Jover, fellow corner back Haston Allen and safeties Zack James and Kurtz left the quarterback few options, and Glendora gained 15 or more yards through the air just three times.
Huntington Beach’s first two second-half drives went nowhere. Glendora’s best broke down at the Huntington Beach 8, and Lemos’ 24-yard field goal made it 22-21. The Tartans had a chance to go ahead after Aidan Yamazaki picked off Edmunds inside the red zone and returned it to midfield on the fourth play of the fourth quarter, but Soleau’s field-goal heroics led to Edmunds’ touchdown and the defensive stand at the finish.
CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs
Huntington Beach 29, Glendora 21
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Glendora 7 - 11 - 3 - 0 — 21
Huntington Beach 15 - 7 - 0 - 7 — 29
FIRST QUARTER
G — Zwick 66 run (Lemos kick), 10:00.
HB — Gray 8 pass from Edmunds (Young run), 9:55.
HB — Young 6 run (Zavala kick), 0:50.
SECOND QUARTER
G — DeGraaf 17 pass from Najarro (Najarro run), 9:16.
G — Lemos 42 FG, 3:34.
HB — Gray 23 pass from Edmunds (Zavala kick), 0:50.
THIRD QUARTER
G — Lemos 23 FG, 1:53.
FOURTH QUARTER
HB — Edmunds 2 run (Zavala kick), 2:50.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
G — Zwick, 6-76, 1 TD.
HB — Young, 25-95, 1 TD.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
G — Najarro, 13-33-0, 148, 1 TDs.
HB — Edmunds, 13-22-1, 274, 2 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
G — DeGraaf, 5-76, 1 TD; Johnson, 6-63.
HB — Gray, 7-164, 2 TDs.
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