Sunset on the Oilers

Huntington travels Friday to take on Esperanza in its final Sunset League football game.After playing football in the Sunset League for the past 30 years, the Huntington Beach Oilers lace up Friday for one final foray into a league battle.

Huntington, which will join the Sea View League beginning in the 2006-07 school year, plays its last Sunset League game against the host Esperanza Aztecs at 7 p.m. at Valencia High in Placentia.

It’s one last chance for the Oilers to make some noise in what is considered to be the toughest league in Orange County and one of the best in the CIF-Southern Section.

Two years ago, in its last trip to Bradford Stadium at Valencia High, Huntington stunned Esperanza, 14-10.

Huntington improved to 2-2 in the league and 5-4 overall last Friday by defeating Marina, 14-7. The victory was especially important in that it gave the Oilers the necessary five victories needed to receive consideration for an at-large playoff bid.

The Oilers, who haven’t participated in postseason play since 1998, could wrap up an automatic bid Friday by defeating Esperanza.

Stephen Gabbard rushed for 190 yards and a touchdown in the win over Marina.

Esperanza, which defeated Huntington, 41-0, last year, is coming off a 46-19 rout of archrival Los Alamitos. Shane Henry ran for 272 of the Aztecs’ 580 rushing yards in the romp.

Huntington, along with Northwood, Trabuco Hills and El Toro, will be newcomers to the Sea View League, joining holdovers Foothill and Woodbridge.

Since 1962, Huntington has played in the Freeway, Sunset, back to Freeway, Irvine, Sunset again and Empire leagues, before joining the Sunset a final time in 1976, said Roy Miller, athletic director at Huntington Beach High.

“People have the misconception that we’ve always played in the Sunset League, but we haven’t,” said Miller, a football and all-CIF basketball player at Huntington from 1967-69. “As the county changed and schools were added, leagues, obviously, had to be rearranged.

“We’re excited about this new league and think it will be very competitive.”

Miller said athletic directors of the six schools composing the new Sea View League have met and will continue to meet to set up league rules and strategies as well as consider renaming the league.

The move to the new league will sever some long-standing rivalries for Huntington against local schools.

The Oilers have played Marina every year since 1965, Edison every year since 1976 and Fountain Valley in all but two years (1974-75) since 1971.

Miller said the Oilers have already inked four nonleague opponents on their 2006 football schedule: Long Beach Millikan, Los Amigos, Costa Mesa and Westminster. They have one open date to fill, and he said that Huntington is in talks with Marina about setting up a possible nonleague game between the schools next fall.20051110ipb540knNo Caption