to Brethren Christian
The 51-26 loss drops the Shark to
a 1-2 record.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Malibu High School’s football squad can legitimately say that Saturday’s 51-26 defeat at the hands of Huntington Beach’s Brethren Christian wasn’t as bad as it looked.
The Sharks were down 34-0 just after halftime. “That,” said coach Ray Humphrey, “is when I thought ‘oh know, they’re going to lay down,’ right?”
Wrong.
The Malibu offense exploded for three unanswered touchdowns, and roared back to within striking distance “after finally showing up to play,” Humphrey said.
Quarterback Bennett Sherman and wide receiver Garrett Brizendine exploited the same weakness in the Warriors’ left side to execute a series of first-down passes for 19, 13, and 15 yards. That set up a 26-yard pass to Miles Edman, who brought the ball down with just one hand for the first Shark touchdown.
Jake Jesson, who like most Sharks plays offense and defense, grabbed a key fumble on the next Warriors’ possession, setting up the Sharks offense for the next score. Jesson has recovered a fumble in each of Malibu’s three games.
On this set, Sherman went to Edman for the seven-yard touchdown pass up the middle right.
And the Sharks grabbed their third touchdown in the third quarter after Edman made a spectacular 66-yard punt return that included reversing his field twice and slipping out of several tackles. Three plays later, Edman iced the team’s third touchdown of the quarter and of the night.
Brizendine executed a perfect pattern in the end zone for a two-point conversion. Point-after kicks never seem to work for this Malibu team, which has only tried two of them in three games.
Edman also showed some defensive verve, singlehandedly dropping the Brethren Christian punt returner, who in the fourth quarter had eluded 10 other Sharks and faced open turf.
Sherman, the water polo player and football neophyte, connected on 18 of 34 pass attempts for 299 yards.
Edman made 14 runs for 75 yards, and made a 66-yard punt return that included two complete field reversals.
Brizendine had seven receptions for 116 yards and Miles Booth caught 5 for 52, showing that offense is no problem this year.
“It’s tackling,” Humphrey said. “We have to work on tackling, tackling, tackling.”
The junior varsity team also lost to Brethren Christian, 40-13, earlier in the day.
The 2-1 varsity Sharks may have an easier time hosting 0-3 St. Genevieve of Panorama City on Friday. That game, under the rented lights, will be at 7 p.m.