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Sports

Barons Fall Just Short in Battle of the Bell

Fountain Valley led 10-0, but a late touchdown gave Edison a 14-10 win.

Fountain Valley played the game it knew it had to play Friday night against Edison at Orange Coast College. Coach John Shipp called it his defense’s best game of the season. Still, the favored Chargers rallied late to fend off their feisty rivals, 14-10, in the Battle for the Bell.

Edison senior quarterback Chase Favreau tossed the winning touchdown to Bryce Campbell with 6:13 left in the fourth quarter to complete Edison’s comeback. A 10-0 first-half lead had disappeared for the Barons, and with it their flickering playoff hopes in the stacked Pac-5 division.

Fountain Valley fell to 4-5 overall and 1-3 against league competition.
“It’s bittersweet,” Shipp said after his team led the undefeated Sunset League leaders for most of the game. The Barons jumped out in front early on Derek Huynen's 47-yard field goal that split the top of the uprights. Huynen’s bomb resonated with the well-traveled Barons supporters, who found themselves fighting their own battle with the fans on the other side of the field.

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Rain started to fall late in the first quarter, allowing the Barons to focus on stopping the run. The Chargers (7-2, 4-0) caught Fountain Valley in single-coverage after three consecutive runs by Favreau produced a first down, and the quarterback launched a pass to Troy Baljeu for a 35-yard gain, but the play was whistled down for pass interference. Fountain Valley made good
on its second life, chasing Favreau out of the pocket and intercepting his floater along the Edison sideline with 1:49 remaining in the first quarter.

The Barons capitalized on the ensuing possession. A holding call and a sack left the drive in doubt, but Barons quarterback Chris d’Entremont fired a missile over the middle to tight end Sean Finley, who picked up 45 yards on the play to the Edison 17-yard line. The Barons quarterback completed another long third down conversion on the next series, this time connecting with Wyatt Christensen for an 18-yard touchdown.

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The Chargers stormed back, striking on their final drive of the half to make it 10-7 at the break. Favreau found Sedric Hill from 25 yards out with 41 seconds left in the second quarter, bringing the Edison faithful to life with an 82-yard drive.

The rain stopped in the second half, and when it did, so did the Barons' offense, which did not pick up a first down in the third quarter. Edison leaned on its running game to start the second half, but Chargers coach Dave White opened the playbook for his quarterback in the fourth quarter.

After picking up a first down on the ground, the Chargers were dancing in the end zone less thn a minute later when Favreau threw one up for his tight end Campbell, who came down with both feet in-bounds to give Edison its
first and only lead of the night.

“It’s a chess match,” Shipp said in response to the steady diet of run plays his defense faced before Edison’s final drive. Shipp went on to say that if he were Coach White, he would also have taken advantage of the Chargers’ size.

“It’s not always about who is supposed to win,” said White after his team squeaked by the rival Barons in the final frame. “It was a great game.”

Fountain Valley wraps up the season next Friday on the road against Huntington Beach High. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

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