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Los Alamitos finishes on top in Sunset

By STEVE FRYER, 11/06/14, 11:00PM PST

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Los Alamitos had come so close to winning a league championship the past few years.

LONG BEACH – Los Alamitos had come so close to winning a league championship the past few years.

The Griffins got one Thursday. They beat Edison, 35-14, at Veterans Stadium to win the Sunset League championship in the final game of the regular season for both teams. Los Alamitos and Edison went into the game with 4-0 league records.

Los Alamitos concluded the regular season at 9-1 overall and 5-0 in league. Its loss was to Narbonne of Harbor City.

It is Los Alamitos’ first league championship since 2010, and it is the 17th league championship for Griffins coach John Barnes, whose 317 career wins is the most in county history.

Eighth-ranked Los Alamitos had a 14-7 lead at halftime. After a scoreless third quarter, the Griffins scored touchdowns on three consecutive offensive possessions to pull away.

Matt Locher and the other Griffins seniors were ecstatic.

“The last few years we’ve come up short,” Locher said. “To be a senior, to go 5-0 in league in front of a great crowd, to go undefeated and win league, it’s unbelievable.”

It was an enjoyable win for Barnes, too.

“It always means so much,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s never not really special. It’s so hard to win our league because it’s always so balanced.”

Locher, better known as one of the county’s top linebackers, had two touchdown runs, one for 7 yards and the other for 36 yards. He and Jonathon Jennings had two sacks each. Brandon Ezell and Schuyler Whitehead had interceptions, with Ezell’s coming at the Los Alamitos 5-yard line in the third quarter when the Griffins were leading by 14 points.

Denzal Brantley rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns. His third scoring run covered 71 yards.

Grant Lowary threw two touchdown passes for Edison.

As sole champion, Los Alamitos goes to the CIF-Southern Section playoffs as the league’s No. 1 representative in the West Valley Division. That guarantees the Griffins a first-round home game against another league’s No. 3 or 4 team.

Edison (7-3, 4-1) is the league’s No. 2 representative. CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released Sunday.

Los Alamitos took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 14-yard touchdown run by Brantley. The Griffins made it 14-0 in the second quarter on a 7-yard touchdown run by Locher, his first carry of the game.

Edison scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Lowary to Jake Favreau to cut the Chargers’ deficit to 14-7.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com