Huntington Beach Can’t Keep up with Summit, Falls in CIF-SS Division 5 Quarterfinals (2024)

Fontana – A.B. Miller Football Stadium

The Huntington Beach football team was unable to overcome a 14-0 deficit, as it fell to Summit 45-14 on Friday at A.B. Miller High School.

The Skyhawks (11-1) advances to the semifinals where they will face La Serna at home with a time and location to be determined. The Lancers dispatched of Rio Mesa 56-35 on the road in their quarterfinal game.

The start to the game was less than ideal for the Oilers, as they saw Summit recover a short pooch kick on the opening kickoff. Despite this, Huntington Beach’s defense came up big, forcing a turnover on downs on the Skyhawks.

The Oilers were unsuccessful in their opening drive, forcing them to go three and out. Eventually, Summit utilized its run game effectively, seeing them score courtesy of a one-yard touchdown run from George Toia.

Toia, who mainly plays defense and college football scouts looking at him, was involved in the run game, mostly on fourth and short plays and goal line plays. The Skyhawks have been known to run the ball more often than not, as they ran the ball on every play in their first round playoff win against Torrance.

Huntington Beach made a great effort to try and score on their next drive. But on fourth down with the quarter closing, Brady Edmunds’ receiver dropped a would-be touchdown pass in the endzone.

Summit made sure to take advantage of the turnover on downs, as its run game continued to pave the way into the red zone, where Toia scored. His second touchdown came from four yards out to put the Skyhawks up 14-0.

Huntington Beach settled down and started stringing the first downs together. After two personal foul penalties on Summit, the Oilers found paydirt, as Edmunds found Steel Kurtz for a seven-yard score to make the lead 14-7.

Huntington Beach used some trickery of their own on special teams as they used an onside kick, which was recovered by the Skyhawks but kicker Mattheo Zavala jarred the ball loose and saw his team recover. Two plays later, Edmunds hit Troy Foster for a 51-yard catch and run as once down 14-0, the Oilers saw them tied with the hosts 14-14.

But Summit had an answer, as they used a rare pass play from Francisco Hernandez who found an uncovered Nikolas Miramonte for a 54-yard catch and run touchdown to retake the lead at 21-14. Huntington Beach tried to get one more score before the end of the first half, but was unable to do so, as It went into halftime down by a touchdown.

The Skyhawks continued to utilize its run game, as slowly but surely, they ate up a good amount of clock. Eventually, Mark Mitchell III scored from 10 yards out to extend their lead to 28-14.

The Oilers struggled in the second half, as they were unable to get any rhythm going offensively. Edmunds eventually got picked off and Summit went back to work.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Skyhawks continued their gameplan of running the ball, as Toia rumbled in for his third touchdown of the night.

Huntington Beach’s next drive saw Edmunds get picked off again as the interception was returned to the Oilers’ five yard line. The play after saw Toia bully his way in for his fourth touchdown against a worn out Oilers defense, as Summit put the game out of reach.

It was a frustrating game overall for the Oilers, who finished the season 7-5. Their team does boast a promising group of returners for next year’s team, who looks to make it back to the playoffs and have a deeper playoff run.