Woodbridge Beats Edison, Lives Up to Advance Billing

IRVINE — For those who wondered just how good Woodbridge is this season, the first-game results are in.

Good. Very good.

Woodbridge, which lost only one starter from a team that won its first 32 games and was a Division II State finalist, showed up with a team Thursday that was bigger, stronger and deeper.

The Warriors, led by sophomore transfer Krissy Duperron and sophomore holdover Erin Stovall, scored a 65-47 victory over Edison, another team that is likely to be among the county’s top 10.

“They don’t have any weaknesses,” Edison Coach Dave White said. “They and Brea-Olinda are in a class by themselves. No one is better than those two.”

Edison (1-1) scrimmaged Brea this season.

Eight- and six-point runs in the first quarter helped the Warriors to a 12-point lead. When Edison’s best player, Marie Philman (seven of eight from the field, 20 points), sat down the final 3 minutes 42 seconds of the second quarter with three fouls, Woodbridge reeled off 11 straight and took a 39-21 halftime lead.

That lead reached 21 in the third quarter, but Edison outscored Woodbridge, 10-1, in the final 2:50 to cut it to 11. It was as close as the Chargers would get.

Duperron, a 5-foot-10 transfer from Riverside Notre Dame who had played with some Woodbridge players on a local traveling team, scored 14 points and had seven rebounds; Stovall had 16 points, including eight in the fourth quarter.

“(Duperron is) a very steady player,” Woodbridge Coach Eric Bangs said. “She doesn’t quite match (Philman) athletically, but she’s just as strong.

“She makes us the No. 1 team in the county. Not that we’re that much better, but we’re so strong up front, you have to give us the nod.”