THE WRITING OFF OF A RIVALRY : For Once, the Big Game Won’t Decide Sunset : Though Title Isn’t at Stake, Edison-Fountain Valley Remains a Big Deal at Big A

Marina and Westminster high schools meet tonight in a game that could decide the Sunset League championship. A big crowd is expected in Westminster Stadium to watch what should be a hard-hitting game featuring two of Orange County’s best defenses.

And, in other Sunset League action, Fountain Valley plays Edison at Anaheim Stadium.

To anyone who has followed the Sunset League for the past decade, seeing the Fountain Valley-Edison game get second billing behind Marina-Westminster is like hearing Johnny Carson say, “And now, heeeeeeeer’s Eddie.”

Something is terribly wrong with this picture. But there is no disputing the fact that there will be more at stake tonight in the shadows of the 405 freeway in comparatively tiny Westminster Stadium than at the Big A. Marina and Westminster may be playing for a league title. Fountain Valley and Edison are playing for a bell.

Fountain Valley enters the game with an overall record of 3-5. The Barons have lost two straight league games and are in jeopardy of being excluded from the CIF Southern Section playoffs for the first time since 1974.

Edison, the preseason league favorite, has won two straight since opening league with a loss to Westminster. If the Barons and Chargers weren’t meeting on the same field tonight, it’s clear they would be heading in opposite directions.

What does this do for an intense rivalry to schools that are about a five-minute drive apart; schools that--almost brick for brick--are mirror images of each other?

Mike Milner and Bill Workman, the opposing coaches, will tell you it makes no difference whatsoever. You can throw out the records in this one, they claim.

Said Milner, who might wish that were possible: “I don’t think a kid will look at his (team’s) record if it’s 3-5 and say, ‘This isn’t going to be a typical Fountain Valley-Edison game.’

“They want to play in the game they’ve heard so much about . . . the one they’ve waited so long to play in.”

Added Workman: “There’s a lot at stake here. People who count Fountain Valley out or say that it’s not a big deal for us are not looking at it correctly.”

Whether the ticket-buying public--which has turned out in large numbers to see the game since it was first played in Anaheim Stadium in 1975--agrees remains to be seen.

William Tangeman, activities director at Edison, reported Thursday that ticket sales have been brisk. Indeed, there was a lengthy line of students waiting to buy tickets outside the Edison activities office at lunch hour Thursday.

“We’ve sold more presale tickets for this game than we have in all the other games this season combined,” Tangeman said. “And these are some of the biggest student lines we’ve had in some time.”

Demand for tickets was not as frenzied at Fountain Valley but, as Activities Director Mike Bryan emphasized, the Barons are the designated home team this season so Fountain Valley students gain admission with an associated student body card.

“We’re down a little bit, but not a tremendous amount,” Bryan said. “But when you’re not having a winning season . . .

“I think what we won’t get is the sports fans in Orange County who want to see a big game. They might go to Marina-Westminster.”

The game has been well-attended. The teams played in front of 29,916 spectators when they met at Anaheim Stadium for the 1980 Big Five Conference championship. It was the fourth-largest crowd to ever see a CIF title game. It also was considerably more than the largest crowd (18,551) the now-defunct California Surf North American Soccer League team drew to the Big A that year, and more than the average attendance of the California Angels (28,362) for the 1980 season.

The attendance was 20,733 in 1981, dipped to 9,626 in ‘82, then went back to 11,135 in ’83 and 12,158 last season.

And what of 1985? Will Anaheim Stadium become one big echo chamber in which the Barons and Chargers play before a sea of mostly empty orange seats?

“Obviously, the attendance would be better if we were both 8-0 and playing for all the marbles,” Workman said. “The Edison and Fountain Valley people will be there.

“When we got the huge crowds before was when we got big walk-up crowds . . . people who didn’t belong to either school who came to watch a good football game.”

In a few cases, those fans got what they came for.

There was the regular-season game in 1980 in which Edison clinched the Sunset League title and extended its winning streak to 17 games by scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter for a 15-14 win. The winning points came on a two-point conversion run by Edison quarterback Ken Major, after Major had run for a touchdown on an identical play with 19 seconds to play.

Last season, Fountain Valley quarterback John Peart came off the bench in the fourth quarter to replace starter Eric Zeno and threw a touchdown pass and two-point conversion pass in the final minute to give the Barons an 11-10 victory that sparked memories of Edison’s 1980 comeback.

But when you cut through the hype and hyperbole that surrounds the series, what you get is a neighborhood rivalry that has been pretty one-sided. Fountain Valley has won the last two meetings, but Edison holds a 12-4-1 advantage. The Chargers have outscored Fountain Valley, 293-172, since 1969.

And now, it has come to this: Westminster and Marina are playing a game that will have a bigger impact on who wins the league title than the renewal of the Fountain Valley-Edison rivalry.

Take a picture. This is a most unusual Sunset.

The Big Game

Fountain Valley vs. Edison

The records--Fountain Valley (1-2, 3-5), Edison (2-1, 6-2).

The site--Anaheim Stadium.

Key to the game--The matchups between quarterbacks and secondaries. Fountain Valley will need quarterback John Peart to perform considerably better than he has thus far. The unlikely hero in this game last year, Peart has completed only 69 of 165 passes (42%) for 1,021 yards and has had nine passes intercepted. Edison quarterback Mike Angelovic has completed 79 of 135 passes for 1,302 yards and 14 touchdowns. Edison defensive back Joe Morris has five interceptions in the Chargers’ last four games. The game will feature the Sunset League’s premier receivers in Fountain Valley’s Dennis Arey (40 catches, 679 yards) and Edison’s Rick Justice (34 for 598).

Consensus--If the Barons lose, they will be eliminated from the CIF Southern Section playoffs for the first time since 1974. But Edison has a lot to lose, too, and the Chargers have superior talent. Edison is the clear favorite.

The Rivalry/ Year-by-Year

Year Score 1969 Edison 21, Fountain Valley 20

1970 Edison 28, Fountain Valley 6

1971 Edison 20, Fountain Valley 6

1972 Edison 26, Fountain Valley 7

1973 Fountain Valley 28, Edison 24

1974 Edison 0, Fountain Valley 0

1975 Edison 19, Fountain Valley 6

1976 Edison 13, Fountain Valley 0

1977 Fountain Valley 6, Edison 3

1978 Edison 10, Fountain Valley 7

1979 Edison 35, Fountain Valley 7

1980 Edison 15, Fountain Valley 14

1980* Edison 21, Fountain Valley 0

1981 Edison 24, Fountain Valley 13

1982 Edison 17, Fountain Valley 8

1983 Fountain Valley 33, Edison 7

1984 Fountain Valley 11, Edison 10

* Indicates Big Five Conference playoff game

Series record: Edison leads, 12-4-1.