There was Wade Houston not only tackling the quarterback in the end zone, but alertly stripping the ball, popping it into the air and recovering the fumble for another touchdown.
Game, set and match for Edison (8-0, 3-0 in league), which now gets to prepare for what should be an epic "Battle for the Bell" game against Fountain Valley (also 8-0, 3-0) Friday night at Cal State Fullerton.
"Defense wins championships," senior linebacker Jordan Zumwalt said before leaving the field Friday night. "You know it. Defense wins championships."
Edison Coach Dave White couldn’t argue after his Chargers, the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division, scored none of their three touchdowns on offense.
"It takes a team effort," White said. "Offense has done well all year and this time, defense and special teams won us the game...For me, the exciting part was watching our defense fly around in the fourth quarter. We were swarming and we looked pretty fresh in that fourth quarter on defense."
Los Alamitos (6-2, 1-2) spent nearly nine minutes on its opening drive, which featured 14 rushes by junior tailback Nick Richardson and ended with Twin Fernandez scoring from a yard out.
But, from there, the Griffins scored just three points.
"We worked hard the whole time," said Malone, a senior linebacker. "The first drive was a little rough and they had a couple good plays, but we stuck it out and we had to pick it up for our offense."
Edison had two first-half field goals from Markus Trujillo, the second coming after an interception by senior linebacker Shaun McLaughlin set the Chargers up with good field position. But they were behind 7-6 before Eddy hit Griffins receiver Josh Gasser in the open field, Malone scooped the ball up and returned it for the touchdown.
