Los Alamitos rolls past Fountain Valley, claims outright Sunset League football crown

Reporting from Long Beach —  The Fountain Valley High football team came into Thursday night’s contest against Los Alamitos looking to play the role of spoiler.

With a win over the Barons, the Griffins would secure an outright Sunset League championship with a perfect 5-0 record.

Fountain Valley needed to be perfect in its own right to prevent that postgame celebration, but the execution fell far short of those hopes as the Barons dropped their final regular-season game to host Los Alamitos 41-6 at Veterans Stadium.

Fountain Valley coach Jimmy Nolan knew it was going to be a tough game for his Barons to hang in, but was happy with his team’s effort in this game and all season after finishing 1-9 last year.

“The goal was to not give up, and you never know, strange things can happen,” Nolan said. “The kids believe in each other and there’s great camaraderie. It’s the old-school, play-in-your-backyard style.”

Fountain Valley (6-4, 2-3 in league) entered Thursday with some CIF Southern Section playoff implications of its own on the line.

A win would have kept the Barons on pace with Huntington Beach for the No. 3 spot in the league standings and given them a strong chance at earning a berth into the Division 6 playoffs. The Barons, ranked No. 7 in Division 6, went into the week tied for third place with the Oilers, who play host to Newport Harbor on Friday.

Now, even with a loss Friday, Huntington Beach holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Fountain Valley, beating the Barons 21-14 on Oct. 13.

Instead, the Barons must petition the section for an at-large playoff spot, a spot coach Nolan expects them to get. His team used Thursday’s game to prepare for at least one more game.

“You want to face the best team you can possibly play before you go to the playoffs,” Nolan said. “We showed some things that will make it a lot less difficult with whoever we play. Even the top team in [our playoff division] is not Los Al.”

Fountain Valley had trouble moving the ball all night against Los Alamitos, ranked No. 9 in Division 2. The Barons managed just 27 total yards in the first half, while completing only one pass.

For the game, the Barons amassed just 82 yards of total offense. Los Alamitos’ defense, led by senior linebacker Issaiah Johnson, was a regular visitor into Fountain Valley’s backfield, giving quarterback Nick Welch and running back Benn Vallier little time to operate.

Welch found some breathing room late in the fourth quarter, finding Adam Arganda for a 20-yard touchdown for Fountain Valley’s only score of the game.

Fountain Valley found itself with an early opportunity after recovering a Los Alamitos fumble at its six. But the Barons couldn’t capitalize on the mistake, gaining a first down, but punting soon thereafter.

The Griffins, who improved to 7-3 overall, blanked Fountain Valley 14-0 in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Los Alamitos offense was operating just fine, even without star running back Keanu Norman. He was held out for precautionary reasons.

Senior quarterback Grant Caraway threw two touchdown passes in the first half. The first was on a 54-yard strike to Zach Ruiz at the 6:21 mark of the first quarter and the second on a fourth-and-23, pass and catch to Kevin Schmitt with 8:13 left before halftime.

Caraway, who finished with 264 passing yards and 126 rushing yards, added two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter to cap his stellar performance. He and the Griffins made sure coach Ray Fenton, who guided Fountain Valley from 2013-15, claimed his first undefeated Sunset League title by knocking off Fenton’s former school.

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Los Alamitos 41, Fountain Valley 6

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Fountain Valley 0 – 0 – 0 – 6 — 6

Los Alamitos 7 – 7 – 14 – 13 — 41

FIRST QUARTER

LA – Ruiz 54 pass from Caraway (Valenzuela kick), 6:21.

SECOND QUARTER

LA – Schmitt 23 pass from Caraway (Valenzuela kick), 8:13.

THIRD QUARTER

LA – Hartman 4 run (Valenzuela kick), 7:37.

LA – Hartman 1 run (Valenzuela kick), 3:12.

FOURTH QUARTER

FV – Arganda 20 pass from Welch (kick failed), 9:19.

LA – Caraway 15 run (kick failed), 6:16.

LA – Caraway 1 run (Valenzuela kick), 2:55.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

FV – Vallier, 11-18.

LA – Caraway, 16-126, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

FV – Welch, 4-15-1, 58, 1 TD.

LA – Caraway, 16-26-1, 264, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

FV – Sykes, 2-36.

LA – Ruiz, 5-152, 1 TD.

DEVIN UGLAND is a contributor to Times Community News: Follow him on Twitter: @Devin_Ugland