HUNTINGTON BEACH – After one quarter, the Edison football team must have been wondering what was happening. Trailing 6-0, the Chargers lost a fumble on their first offensive play Friday, and their only other possession ended deep in Leuzinger territory on an incomplete pass.
But the Chargers unleashed two lightning bolts in the first 3:12 of the second quarter and went on to a 31-22 victory at Huntington Beach High School.
Quarterback Parker Awad threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns, and Carter Hogue rushed for 81 yards and two scores for the Chargers (2-0).
Leuzinger (0-1) punted on its first possession but got the ball right back when Hogue fumbled at the Edison 34-yard line. Five plays later, Ethan Harris grabbed Will Doherty’s wobbly pass, which had been deflected at the line, for a 17-yard TD with 7:19 left in the first quarter.
Edison struggled on offense before Awad hit Ashton Hurley deep down the left side for 78 yards and a touchdown less than two minutes into the second quarter.
Two minutes later, Hogue took a handoff to the left side and outran the Olympians for a 66-yard touchdown and a 14-6 lead.
Hogue scored again on a 15-yard run with 3:59 left in the first half.
A 24-yard field goal from Nicholas Preston pushed it to 24-6 midway through the third quarter.
Doherty threw a couple of TDs in the final two minutes to make the score close, but he was hounded by the Chargers much of the evening. Dom Lopez and Jared Schnoor each intercepted a pass, and a third pickoff was nullified by a penalty.
The Chargers, though, also kept the Olympians buoyed from time to time with two defensive pass interference penalties and a couple of personal fouls.
Awad completed 17 of 25 passes, with Ashton Hurley and Mason York his primary targets. Hurley caught five passes for 122 yards.
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Tucker Tripp caught Awad’s second TD with a leaping grab in the right corner of the end zone for a 31-6 lead with 9:55 left in the game.
York caught five balls for 108 yards.
Doherty completed 21 of 39 attempts for 275 yards, though a chunk of that came on TDs of 22 and 80 yards to Daijon Calamon in the final two minutes. The Olympians relied primarily upon Doherty, as they ran for 22 yards on 23 carries.