That grittiness is one of the reasons.
“[Bonham] had one day of practice at center,” Edison Coach Dave White said.
“That’s kind of what we’ve been all year. We’re beat up, banged up, but they keep chugging along. I’m proud of them; they’re great kids and they’ve worked real hard to get to this point.”
Edison (6-0), ranked No. 5 in the state by Calhisports.com, plays at Newport Harbor (4-2, 1-0) Friday night. That game, already important, became a bit magnified as the Sailors upset Los Alamitos, 23-20, in their league opener on a late touchdown pass from Aaron Rios to Parker Norton.
It was the 200th win at Newport Harbor for Coach Jeff Brinkley.
Edison jumped ahead early against Esperanza (3-3). The Chargers led 20-10 at halftime as senior quarterback Matt Viles connected on touchdown passes to Michael Rivera and Luke Eddy and senior kicker Markus Trujillo had two field goals.
But defense led to offense in the second half, when senior Shaun McLaughlin blocked an Esperanza punt midway through the third quarter.
The ball popped up into the air and was grabbed by junior Roland Blackiston, who advanced it to the Esperanza 12.
On the next play, Viles had his second touchdown pass to Rivera, finding him open near the back-right corner of the end zone.
Viles capped the scoring with 7:37 left in the game, when he found junior Davion Orphey on a screen pass. Orphey did the rest, breezing past several defenders near midfield for a 63-yard touchdown.
Viles had 292 yards and four touchdowns. Orphey had 168 total yards, 96 of those on the ground in the first half.
