DECK

It was this time of the season last year when things turned sour

for two local prep football teams.

Yes, week No. 5 of the nonleague portion of the schedule doomed

both Huntington Beach High and Edison, each of whom showed promise during

nonleague play and looked forward to making a serious run at a possible

Sunset League championship.

But neither the Oilers nor Chargers lived up to that potential.

Instead, key injuries to several starters at both schools wiped out their

hopes, and both limped to the finish line of the 1998 season - although

Huntington Beach did sneak into the postseason picture by receiving the

Division I wild-card bid.

‘It was this exact week last year that our problems started to

pile up,’ Huntington Beach Coach Tony Ciarelli said. ‘Our players started

to drop, and those injuries took a toll on our team the remainder of the

season.’

The Oilers had just completed the school’s first 5-0 nonleague

record in six seasons, but injuries to Ciarelli’s squad decimated an

already thin roster.

After beating Dana Hills, 7-6, in the fifth week of the season (a

defensive struggle in which several key were lost to injury, including

all-league lineman Brendan Rosen), the Oilers struggled to a 1-3-1 league

mark.

At 6-4-1, Huntington Beach was awarded a wild-card berth, but was

hammered, 52-0, by defending Division I champion Long Beach Poly in an

opening round game.

‘Our goal all season long was to make the playoffs, but we weren’t

at full strength heading into the playoffs - and we certainly needed to

be if we held any hopes of competing with Poly,’ Ciarelli said. ‘So far

this season, the football field has been very kind to us.’

The Oilers enter the fifth week of the current season again to

face Dana Hills, and Ciarelli is hoping that his squad escapes

injury-free this time.

The only key injury the Oilers have suffered on the field so far

is a shoulder bruise to two-way lineman Brian Ruziecki, who already has

missed two games.

But in non-football related accidents, fullback/linebacker Carlos

Adame was injured in a car accident last Wednesday, and the junior is

questionable for the remainder of the season. Another player, junior

lineman Jordan Connolly, suffered an allergic reaction to a spider bite

late last week, missed the Paramount game, and his availability (as of

Wednesday) for the Dana Hills game is uncertain.

With three starters out of action against Paramount, the Oilers

suffered a 34-13 defeat - their first of the season against three

victories.

‘We’ve had to shift around a few players in the Paramount game to

compensate for those injuries, but hopefully, we can have our squad

intact for next week’s league opener with Fountain Valley,’ Ciarelli

said. ‘We’ll need all the momentum we can get for that game.’

Over at Edison, the Chargers finished their ’98 nonleague schedule

with a 3-2 mark, but injuries also took a toll just before the start of

league play, where they struggled to an 0-4-1 mark - the school’s worst

league showing.

‘We were young and inexperienced last year, and on top of that, it

was injuries to several key players that killed us the rest of the

season,’ Edison Coach Dave White said. ‘We never recovered once the

injuries began to pile up.’

Although Edison has reached the fifth week of the ’99 season

relatively unscathed, White and the Chargers received a double scare late

in last week’s game with Long Beach Wilson.

Late in the fourth of a 35-12 Charger victory, two key players,

Darryl Poston and Jimmy Thorson, went down on separate plays. Poston got

up on his own accord and limped off the field with an ankle sprain, but

Thorson, who was injured on a last-minute punt return, lay on the turf of

Sheue Field for several minutes before being escorted to the sideline.

The loss of either player - or both - would have been a crucial

blow to the Chargers, who are enjoying a 4-0 season thus far. It’s safe

to say they would not have been the same team without the two.

Poston is the county’s top rusher in three categories: yards per

carry average (9.9), touchdowns (14), and rushing yardage (751). His

numbers are even more impressive when you consider that Poston has racked

up his stats without having played an entire four quarters in any of

Edison’s first four games.

Thorson, an all-purpose player who is a dangerous kick/punt

returner, gives Edison an advantage at various positions.

White shuttered at the thought of losing either player.

‘I don’t even want to think about it,’ he said. ‘I just kind of

held my breath when Poston went down, but he popped up and he’s going to

be okay. But when Jimmy went down and was just laying there, I knew it

could be serious.’

After the game, Poston walked with a slight limp, his left ankle

bandaged, but the junior back said he was ‘fine’ and would be ready for

Arcadia, Edison’s homecoming opponent Friday.

But Thorson was a great concern to White, who, after shaking hands

with the Wilson staff at midfield, hustled over to a golf cart on the

Edison side of the field, where Thorson sat, propped up.

Initially, White thought Thorson might have broke a bone in his

leg, but he said Tuesday that the injury turned out to be a contusion of

the calf.

‘That was a major relief for Jimmy,’ White said. ‘He’s an

important player in our line-up, and to lose him would be a tough, tough

blow. But, he’s going to be back - it’s just not certain when.

‘I just don’t want to go through what our team suffered through

last year.’