Marina bullies Fountain Valley

WESTMINSTER - Marina High football coach Mark Rehling said that in

order to be a success, you need to beat your neighbor. Well, in the span

of eight days, Marina quickly is becoming the neighborhood bully. With

quarterback Beau Brown running the option almost flawlessly in the second

half, the host Vikings rebounded from a 3-0 halftime deficit to run away

with a 20-3 Sunset League victory over Fountain Valley Friday at

Westminster High’s Bill Boswell Field. Brown scored on option keepers

covering 38 and 37 yards in the second half as Marina beat Fountain

Valley for just the seventh time in 26 meetings between the schools, and

stayed unbeaten in league play at 2-0. ‘This is another great, great win

for our football team,’ Rehling said. ‘The kids finally are beginning to

believe in themselves. It was just an all-around great effort, and it’s

nice to be 2-0 at this point of the league season. I don’t think we’ve

won two league games in the same season in nearly six years.’ The Vikings

opened league play last Friday with a 28-20 upset of Edison, a win that

was just the fourth by Marina in 26 games with the Chargers. Friday’s win

also marked the first time in eight years that Marina has beaten both

Edison and Fountain Valley in the same season. Brown had a lot to do with

this victory. The junior slashed his way mostly around right end during

the night and finished with a game-high 153 yards on 12 carries. Brown,

whose total would have been around 160 had he not taken a knee on

Marina’s final two snaps as the Vikings ran out the game’s final 1:08,

took advantage of the fact that the Fountain Valley defense keyed on

fullback Ray Mietkiewicz. The Barons held the senior in check during the

first half, limiting Mietkiewicz to just 26 yards on 13 carries in the

first 24 minutes. But Mietkiewicz broke through in the second half,

rushing for 82 yards on 15 attempts to finish with 108. And, despite

losing two fumbles in the first half, the Vikings turned to their main

ground threat in the game’s final seven minutes, after Peter Dunbar’s

interception of a Casey Clark deflected pass gave Marina a first down at

its own 39-yard line. Mietkiewicz responded by gaining Marina’s first 24

yards in a six play, 61-yard scoring drive, but the scoring honors went

to Brown, who kept around right end and found clear sailing for the

clinching touchdown with 2:49 to play. Mietkiewicz also scored on a

one-yard run early in the final quarter to put Marina (4-2-1) on top,

13-3. ‘Fountain Valley played a good game defensively, and we knew they’d

key on Ray,’ Rehling said. ‘That opened up the field for Beau, and that’s

how he was able to make all those great runs. He did a great job

directing our offense in the second half.’ There wasn’t much of an

offense by either team in a lackluster opening half, in which Fountain

Valley (4-3, 1-1) took a 3-0 halftime lead on the strength of a Matt

Hanson’s 35-yard field goal. The Barons had their chances to open up a

big lead, but squandered excellent starting field position (from the

Marina 49, 44 and 23, and their own 43) on their four first-half

possessions. Fountain Valley played without starting running back Nedal

Abdelmuti (hamstring) and fullback Steven Fifita (ankle), both of sat out

due to injuries suffered in last week’s win over Huntington Beach. Junior

Channing Jung, all of 5-foot-5 of him, stepped in admirably for

Abdelmuti. He gained 52 yards in the first quarter, and had 63 of

Fountain Valley’s 82 yards in the first half. Jung, however, injured his

right ankle four minutes into the second half, and did not return. He

finished with 67 yards overall. ‘Fountain Valley had some tough breaks,

but I don’t think that it really altered their gameplan,’ Rehling said.

‘We knew they were going to run right at us, and they have a lot of

talented backs capable of having big games. But our defense was just

tremendous out there.’ For the second consecutive week, Marina’s defense

indeed was spectacular. The Vikings began their domination when Adam

Hayward stopped Jung for no gain on fourth-and-three from the Marina

six-yard line on Fountain Valley’s first possession of the game and with

the Barons inside the Viking 10 late in the second quarter, Kyle Warren

and Joe Winford dropped Clark for a nine-yard loss. Fountain Valley had

to settle for Hanson’s field goal. With Marina up 6-3 and the Barons

inside Marina territory, Winford was there to recover Stephen Webber’s

fumble after a five-yard gain on a screen pass, ending Fountain Valley’s

scoring threat at the Marina 45-yard line. From that point on, it was all

Brown, and Marina’s defense continued to smother the Barons. ‘We’ve

played phenomenal defense these past two weeks,’ Rehling said. ‘We really

made up our minds right before league started that we wanted to turn

things around and boy, has our intensity level gone up a few notches

these past two weeks. If the kids keep playing like this, then the sky’s

the limit for them.’ With Edison and Fountain Valley out of the way, the

only neighboring team left for Marina to bully around is Huntington

Beach. The Vikings get their chance to spoil the Oilers’ homecoming

festivities when the two teams meet next Friday at Cap Sheue Field.