Home at last

Marina High’s road-weary football team returns to the friendly

confines of Boswell Field tonight.

Newport Beach, Mission Viejo and Brea are the cities to which the

Vikings have traveled the past three weeks and, while it’s tough for

any team to play on the road, what made these roads trips more

daunting was that the Vikings played the likes of Newport Harbor,

Mission Viejo and Orange Lutheran.

Marina was impressive for most of those three games, but finds

little consolation in returning home 0-3.

The Vikings are looking to improve to 2-3 overall tonight when

they wrap up the nonleague portion of their schedule by hosting El

Toro at Westminster High.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

The Vikings have not played at Boswell Field since they opened the

season back on Sept. 12 with a 48-14 whipping of Paramount.

Marina found itself in a 21-0 hole, and again was down, 28-7,

before a late rally fell just short in a 28-21 loss Oct. 3 to Orange

Lutheran.

One highlight from the game included quarterback Matt Brennan

throwing for 230 yards and a touchdown on a 17 of 25 passing night,

and scoring on a six-yard run for Marina’s final touchdown. Another

came from the sure hands of receiver Keith Heyward as the senior

recorded 149 yards on 11 receptions.

Marina may find no rest in El Toro, which brings a 3-1 record into

tonight’s contest.

The Chargers rallied last week to edge winless Woodbridge, 27-26.

Quarterback John Abdelnour rallied El Toro with four touchdown passes

and finished 17 of 26 for 196 yards with one interception.

El Toro, whose only loss this season was a 36-0 setback to

Foothill in the second week of the season, defeated Marina last year,

28-24.

In other weekend games:

FRIDAY

Dana Hills (1-3) vs. Huntington Beach (3-1)

(at Huntington Beach High, 7 p.m.)

Huntington Beach boasts the best nonleague record of any local

prep team, its three wins already beating the Oilers’ two-win total

of 2001.

The Oilers are coming off an exciting, 36-34 win over Laguna

Hills, a game in which running back Patrick Harrigan rushed for 311

yards and four touchdowns and Alex De La Cruz scored on a 98-yard

kickoff return.

Harrigan, one of the Southern Section’s rushing leaders, is just

63 yards shy of reaching 1,000 rushing yards for the season -- which

enters its halfway point this weekend.

The Oilers will be taking on a Dana Hills team that has struggled

to find the end zone: in four previous games, the Dolphins have

scored just 30 points. That’s good news for a Huntington Beach

defense, which is yielding an average of 26 points per game.

Last year’s score: Huntington Beach 16, Dana Hills 8 Edison (1-3) vs. Servite (4-0)

(at Fullerton High, 7:30 p.m.)

Taking on perennial parochial powerhouse programs is nothing new

for Edison, which goes from Mater Dei to Servite in the course of a

week.

The Chargers will be trying to rebound from a 35-18 loss to Mater Dei when they take on a Servite team that is ranked fourth in the

county and seventh in Division I.

Quarterback Tommy Grady’s 361-yard, one touchdown passing

performance -- which included hitting 21 of 34 pass attempts --

couldn’t bring Edison back from a 28-3 deficit against the Monarchs.

This game could be quite a quarterback dual between Grady and

Servite’s Ryan Coffelt who was 12 of 15 passing for 290 yards and

three touchdowns during the Friars’ 41-12 road win at Long Beach

Wilson last week.

Servite has rolled along all season. The Friars have outscored

their four opponents, 138-35.

Last year’s score: Edison 28, Servite 21

SATURDAY

Ocean View (1-3) vs. Orange (2-2, 1-0)

(at El Modena High, 7 p.m.)

Ocean View launches its Golden West League campaign one week after

Orange.

The Seahawks lost to Costa Mesa last week, 26-7, the lone

offensive highlight being a 29-yard touchdown pass from Alex

Hickerson to Rick Sweetin.

Orange is coming off a strange week.

The Panthers began their Golden West League schedule on a

successful note by routing Saddleback, 42-14. Quarterback Mitch Eaton

threw for 151 yards and three touchdowns and Durrell Moss ran for a

pair of scores, caught a 67-yard touchdown pass from Eaton for

another, and accounted for more than 220 yards of total offense.

During the same week, the Panthers learned that they had to

forfeit one of their wins, a 34-20 victory over Sunny Hills on Sept.

20, due to the use of an ineligible player.

The teams did not meet last year.