Huntington Beach Falls to La Habra in Epsilon League game 37-35 (2024)

Huntington Beach – ‘Cap’ Sheue Field

In the battle of two 1-0 teams in the Epsilon League, the Huntington Beach football team fell in heartbreaking fashion to La Habra 37-35 on Friday at Cap Sheue field.

The Oilers had terrific field position thanks to a lateral on the kickoff. Eventually, Brady Edmunds found Niko Lopez for the touchdown to put the Oilers up 7-0.

La Habra, which specialized in running the ball, utilized to the best of their ability, as the tandem of quarterbacks DJ Mitchell and Kenny Saucedo and running back Kevika Martinez. On fourth down of the opening drive, Saucedo ran it in for a 13-yard touchdown, but the extra point was mishandled, keeping Huntington Beach led 7-6.

The Oilers struck back quickly as Edmunds found Troy Foster on a 59-yard catch-and-run only to see the Highlanders march down the field and answer back with a two-yard touchdown run from Kevika Martinez. Eventually, the first quarter ended with Huntington Beach up 14-13.

The Oilers held the Highlanders off the scoreboard in the second quarter, as they were ready defensively for the opposition’s running attacks. Offensively, Edmunds kept finding his receivers, as the next touchdown was to Steel Kurtz who scored from 15 yards out to give his team a 21-13 lead.

After La Habra turned it over on downs, but Huntington Beach fumbled and gave it back to the visitors albeit a 15-yard penalty made the drive longer. Eventually, the Oilers got the ball back and Edmunds found Faris Shehadeh for a 29-yard touchdown pass as soon as he got hit.

Eventually, the Oilers went into halftime up 28-13.

After both teams traded punts, the Highlanders found the endzone on a Martinez one-yard run to bring the score at 28-20.

Huntington Beach struggled to move the ball in the second half, as their pass-heavy offense was starting to get figured out by La Habra. The Oilers turned it over on downs and the Highlanders took over in Huntington Beach territory.

La Habra made Huntington Beach pay, as Martnez ran it in for a touchdown on a 4-yard score. With the Highlanders now down two, they went for the two-point conversion to try and tie it, but the Oilers made the stop to still lead by two.

Huntington Beach had the ball at midfield to start the fourth quarter and eventually faced a fourth and 11 on the opponent’s 38-yard line, but turned it over on downs after an incomplete pass.

With 9:30 remaining, the Highlanders nearly took half of the time off and capped it off with Martinez going in for his fourth touchdown of the game, with it coming from 12 yards out. They also completed the two-point conversion as DJ Mitchell ran it in to give La Habra its first lead at 34-28.

With five minutes left, Huntington Beach did all that it could to shave off as much time off the clock and even got La Habra to use one of its time outs. Eventually, Brady Edmunds ran it in for a touchdown on a quarterback sneak to put the Oilers up 35-34.

But Huntington Beach made arguably a questionable decision on kickoff, as they short kicked it and the ball was caught at the La Habra 41 with 1:12 to go. The Highlanders continued to run the ball and work their way down the field to get the go-ahead touchdown or field goal.

The Highlanders eventually settled for being on the Huntington Beach 22-yard, bringing in Christian Ramirez, who kicked the go-ahead 37-yard field goal to win the game and notch their six straight win.

The Oilers (4-3, 1-1) return to action on Friday when they play Foothill at Tustin High School’s Northrup Stadium at 7p.m. The Knights (4-3, 1-1), whose head coach Doug Case is coaching in his final season, defeated Laguna Hills 28-14 on Thursday at home.