Edison quarterback/punter Alek Torgersen (6-3, 210) has committed to Penn, his father, Tom, reports.
Penn captured the Ivy League title this past season, winning its last four games.
Torgersen helped led Edison to its first CIF-Southern Section title since 1985 this past season as the Chargers claimed the Southwest Division. He was selected the CIF-Southwest Division offensive player of the year.
The hard-nosed dual-threat senior was recruited to Penn to play quarterback, Tom said.
Edison water polo center Melissa Balding has committed to Harvard, joining a stellar class of county players heading to the Ivy League school.
Balding joins 2013 seniors Lexi Del Toro of Laguna Beach, Dan Stevens of Newport Harbor and Joey Colton of El Toro as a Harvard commit.
Stevens and Colton were first-team All-County in the fall while Balding and Del Toro are very strong players as well.
Last season, Balding scored 34 goals, drew 52 ejections and added 30 assists. Over the summer, she earned first-team All-America honors at the Junior Olympics for runner-up Huntington Beach.
The senior said she is excited to play for Harvard but also thanked her coaches.
Here’s what Balding wrote in an e-mail:
Former Edison swimmer Tom Shields, pictured far left, edged Ryan Lochte for the silver medal in the 100-meter butterfly at the FINA short-course World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday.
The Cal senior out-touched Lochte by five one-hundredths of a second to finish in 49.54, about three-quarter of a second behind winner Chad Le Clos of South Africa.
Le Clos tied for the silver behind Michael Phelps in the 100-meter fly at the London Games earlier this year but edged Phelps for gold in the 200 fly final.
A few swim teams in Orange County can take in pride in Shields.
Edison had a great game plan and the Chargers executed it to perfection for 24 minutes. Unfortunately, a high school football game is 48 minutes and Serra of Gardena’s quick-strike offense started striking in the second half and ran away from the Chargers for a 27-10 victory on Saturday night in front of 5,500 at Orange Coast College.
The Cavaliers advance to the CIF Division 2 state bowl championship game for the second time in three years where they will face Oakdale next week at Home Depot Center.
Edison played an effective game of hide the football from Serra in the first half. The Chargers put together scoring drives of 6 minutes and 39 seconds and 7 minutes and 41 seconds to take a 10-7 lead at the half. Edison controlled the ball on offense for 18 minutes and 53 seconds in the first half. The best way to stop Serra is to keep the ball away from them.
But Serra QB Jalen Green started to get things going in the second half. His amazing 34-yard scramble after escaping certain doom at the hands of Edison’s Garrett Garcia and Derek Baljeu set up his 4-yard TD run to cap the opening drive of the second half. That gave Serra a 14-10 lead that it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Green, a southpaw, has a live arm and some serious moves when he takes off and runs, and he’s only a junior. I’m guessing we’re going to be seeing a lot of him next season. Maybe, he will follow for Serra players Marqise Lee and Robert Woods to USC. That would be sweet for the Trojans and So Cal football fans.
There were no turnovers in the first half, but Edison committed three turnovers in the second half and Serra made them pay.
It was a great season for Edison, which won its first CIF-SS championship since 1985 when it defeated Villa Park for the Southwest Division title last week. It was also the first championship for Coach Dave White.
Edison established itself as the Baddest Defense in the OC this season. Look for a number of Chargers when the All-County team comes out on Dec. 18.
Follow me on Twitter @LosOCVarsity.
Carlos Arias, Steve Fryer, and Dan Albano discuss the upcoming CIF state regional semifinal game between Edison and Serra.
Can the Chargers defense’ come up big again? Interviews with Dave White and players.
Click here to view the latest OCVarsity Gridiron Extra: Too much football?
Video by Jonathan Khamis, for OCVarsity.com.
*******
If the Orange County top 10 media polling continued through the playoffs, here is how I would vote today …
1. Mission Viejo (11-1) … I had Mater Dei at No. 1 last week, given the Monarchs had defeated St. Bonaventure to get to the Pac-5 championship game. Mission Viejo lost to Long Beach Poly by five points in the Pac-5 second round, and Mater Dei lost to Poly by 18 in the division final. So, Mission above Mater Dei.
Maxpreps projects that Edison will play Serra of Gardena in the Division II SoCal state regional bowl game.
I strongly believe the Chargers deserve the bid after going 13-1 en route to the Southwest Division title. Their only loss was a six-point decision against Mater Dei, the Pac-5 Division runner-up.
Edison won the Southwest title but played its tough Pac-5 nonleague schedule. The Chargers also have a stout defense – allowing less than 7 points a game — and impressed in the CIF finals vs. Villa Park.
The talk at Angel Stadium after the Pac-5 final was that Edison would contend with Serra and Oceanside for the two spots in the SoCal Division II bowl game.
Announcement will be made Sunday.
More football news from the OCVarsity blog:
I want to get this out there ASAP … maybe should have done it last night.
That skirmish between the Edison and Villa Park players last night in the final moments of the Southwest Division championship game at Angel Stadium …
Coaching staffs on both sides acted quickly to try to control the situation. As the action was closer to them, the Edison coaches jumped in very fast.
Villa Park head coach Dusan Ancich approached Edison head coach Dave White, and Ancich said, “It’s our fault.” And the two coaches shook hands.
When Edison coach White received the championship plaque, the Villa Park players applauded.
There are a lot of football coaches who have known White a long time. Wherever they were, they were applauding for White, too. He is very well-respected by his peers.
Good stuff, Edison and Villa Park. Championship class from two champion programs.
More football news from the OCVarsity blog:
Chargers, SHOW ME YOUR LIGHTNING BOLT!!!!
There was some debate about which team had the best defense in the county. Edison settled that debate with its dominating effort in its 28-10 victory over Villa Park in the CIF-SS Southwest Division championship on Friday night in front of 9,807 at Angel Stadium.
Edison won its first championship since sharing the Big-Five title with Long Beach Poly in 1985 after a 14-14 tie. Edison’s last outright championship was in 1980 when it beat Fountain Valley, 14-0, in the Big-Five title game.
The Chargers forced five turnovers against Villa Park, including interceptions by Kiante Goudeau, Donald Rice, Jeremy Maxwell and Dylan Luther.
DE Derek Baljeu, LB Elijah Herrera, LB Trento Aschoff and LB Robert Reyes all played like All-County candidates that they are. Aschoff was ferocious on the pass rush and finished with 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss. Aschoff also had a fumble recovery. Baljeau delivered some bone-jarring hits. LB Donald Rice led the way with 8 total tackles.
Villa Park RB Meki Tafuna had been tearing it up in the playoffs, but once again the Edison D dropped the hammer on the 6-1, 225-pounder. Edison limited Tafuna to 64 yards on 19 carries when the Chargers beat the Spartans, 27-7, on Sept. 6. This time, the Chargers held Tafuna to 37 yards on 16 carries.
The Edison D also put some points on the scoreboard, recording two safeties.
Edison QB Aleksander Torgersen wasn’t super accurate with his passes and his receivers had a number of drops, but Torgersen was effective moving the ball on the ground with some nice scrambles and QB keepers. The 6-3, 215-pounder showed his toughness by breaking tackles and picking up some key first downs to keep key Charger drives alive. He also scored on a 25-yard TD run.
Edison stayed in the hunt for a state bowl game bid. The Chargers look like the favorites to pick up an invite to next week’s CIF state Division 2 regional.
Follow me on Twitter @LosOCVarsity.
The Register/ocvarsity media poll concluded at the end of the regular season. If the polling continued through the playoffs, here is how I would have voted for the county top 10 …
1. Mater Dei (10-2) … Moved them up from No. 2. Right now, the Monarchs are playing so well they would beat Mission Viejo.
2. Mission Viejo (11-1) … Diablos lost to a confident Poly team.
That Villa Park vs. Tustin game, a Southwest Division semifinal Friday, is Tustin’s home game. It likely will be played at Tustin’s on-campus stadium.
The stadium is not one of the county’s better high school football facilities, and is scheduled for a makeover soon. A chart I have has seating capacity at Tustin’s Northrup Field as 3,700.
So we can expect Villa Park to make a motion to have the game moved.
Edison already has Orange Coast College locked in for its Southwest semifinal against Foothill on Friday.
What is available? Santa Ana Stadium, capacity 10,000, is the best of what is available and of what makes geographic sense.
But one could not blame Tustin and Tillers coach Myron Miller for wanting the game to remain at Tustin High. Visiting team winning streaks and championship aspirations die at Northrup.
If Tustin would not go along with a venue change, Villa Park would have the option of requesting that the CIF-Southern Section invoke a venue change, citing the need for a larger-capacity venue.
Updated CIF-SS football playoff brackets
Follow Fryer at twitter.com/stevefryer
More football news from the OCVarsity blog:
The Register/ocvarsity Orange County media poll concludes today, now that the regular season is over.
We had 10 panelists who voted on the media poll.
Here is how I voted this morning …
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Slideshow: Hot Shots Overtime 1: Friday's Division 2 baseball games (5-17-13)
Slideshow: Hot Shots Overtime 2: Friday's Division 4 and 6 baseball games (5-17-13)
Slideshow: Hot Shots Overtime: CIF Track and Field Finals (5-18-13)
Slideshow: OCVarsity Hot Shots: Friday's baseball playoffs (5-17-13)
