Edison football stunned again at end versus Yorba Linda

YORBA LINDA —  Edison’s revered football team could do with a little good fortune right about now. Two painful weeks into the season, the Chargers sit winless, and Friday night’s stunning defeat at Yorba Linda looked suspiciously like last week’s at Clovis West.

They fell at the finish, just like up in Fresno, falling in a 22-21 thriller when Mustangs quarterback Holden Nagin found Troy Roberts in the end zone on fourth down with 5.5 seconds on the clock.

The score completed a remarkable comeback, with Yorba Linda (2-0) marching 94 yards on 17 plays to pull within six points on the fourth quarter’s first play, then driving 82 yards on 19 plays in the final two and a half minutes to prevail.

That’s a lot like last week, when Clovis West rallied from a two-touchdown deficit to pull out a 29-28 triumph on a touchdown pass and two-point conversion with three seconds to go. And like that loss, questionable calls played a major role.

“It sure feels [like everything is against us], just the perspective right in front of us,” said Chargers senior quarterback Savelio Niumata, who threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns. “But I feel like God has a plan for everything. Things are not going to work out in our favor every time. We’ve just got to build and learn from it. …

“We can’t control the little stuff the refs do, but it is what it is, at the end of the day. Next time we’ve just got to work a little harder.”

The Chargers’ effort can’t be faulted. They were in command after touchdowns in the final minute of the first half and on the opening drive of the second. The first came on Ayden Degiacomo’s 36-yard, leaping-into-the-end-zone catch between two defenders. The next on Jake Minter’s 13-yard third-and-goal grab provided a 21-7 advantage.

It was built primarily on defensive work that had effectively shut down Nagin, who with a quarter and a half to go had completed just four of six throws for 10 yards. The All-CIF Southern Section selection soon found his form, completing 10 of his next 11 passes to forge a methodical drive — fueled by three third-down conversions — and position Yorba Linda for a thrilling finish.

Vaughn Sharp followed his 5-yard touchdown run to start the final quarter with, after Edison was offside on the extra-point try, a two-point run to make it 21-15. The Chargers struggled to move the ball (and stop their foe) the rest of the way, going three-and-out by a yard on their next possession, then breaking down on the next after Niumata’s 11-yard sprint to the Yorba Linda 30 was killed by a holding flag.

Penalties were costly all night. Edison had 14 for 108 yards, including a defensive-holding call that kept alive the Mustangs’ first scoring drive late in the first half that answered Julius Gillick’s 9-yard scoring run on the first play of the second quarter. The penalties were never more consequential than at the finish.

Three major infractions aided the Mustangs’ final march, the most damaging being a holding call on a fourth-down incompletion that put the ball on Edison’s 25 with 66 seconds left. Another holding call brought it to the 7 with 25 seconds to go. Nagin, working from the 12 after a false-start penalty, threw incomplete to Roberts on the right side of the end zone three times, thanks to defensive back Carson Schmidt’s deft coverage, but Roberts stayed central on fourth down, and it was 21-21.

Cayden Eilers’ kick made the difference, Niumata’s last-ditch pass after kickoff was dropped near midfield, and Edison was 0-2 for the first time in six years.

“It is [heartbreaking],” Edison head coach Jeff Grady said. “We’re in position to win both games; just came up short. … We just didn’t execute when we needed to execute. We could have finished the game on offense, or at least run some more clock off, and we didn’t get the first down that we needed. … It’s just tough.”

Said Niumata: “There’s nothing you can do controlling what the refs do for [Yorba Linda], whether it seems like they’re favoring them or not — which it did — but we’ve just got to keep playing until that clock hits zero. I feel like our boys played their hearts out, and that’s all I could really ask for.”

The late penalties and clock operations irked the Chargers, who also were denied a first-half safety when Jake Lopez was brought down after retreating into the end zone upon picking up a kickoff that had died on the front of the goal line. Yorba Linda instead got the ball on the 1, and Edison went without two vital, potentially decisive points.

If that seems unfair, consider last week, when Clovis West’s winning touchdown was ruled down on the 1 by the line judge and overturned by the crew chief, standing 25 yards away. Video confirmed the initial call. Now it’s back-to-back, last-seconds defeats, and there is frustration.

“Gives me the biggest chip on my shoulder,” Niumata said. “I feel like I have everything to prove now. We’re starting off 0-2, and we have everything to prove. But I feel like we’re only going to get better from here, and we’re going to keep learning.”

Nonleague

Yorba Linda 22, Edison 21

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Edison 0 - 13 - 8 - 0 — 21

Yorba Linda 0 - 7 - 0 - 15 — 22

FIRST QUARTER

None.

SECOND QUARTER

E — Gillick 9 run (Bammer kick), 11:54.

YL — Nerio 4 run (Eilers kick), 2:02.

E — Degiacomo 36 pass from Niumata (kick failed), 0:39.

THIRD QUARTER

E — Minter 13 pass from Niumata (Carr pass from Niumata), 7:49.

FOURTH QUARTER

YL — Sharp 5 run (Sharp run), 11:55.

YL — Roberts 12 pass from Nagin (Eilers kick), 0:05.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

E — Gillick, 4-123, 1 TD.

YL — Sharp, 11-60, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

E — Niumata, 9-15-1, 161, 2 TDs.

YL — Nagin, 16-24-0, 104, 1 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

E — Brown, 3-60.

YL — Roberts, 5-22, 1 TD; Brazelton, 3-39.