Interior design

Mike Sciacca

If you want to find the strength of the 2004 Marina High football

team, just look up front and center.

Coming into the season, Coach Mike Dodd believes the heat will

come from the Vikings’ defense, particularly along the line.

It’s at that spot where Marina returns three All-Sunset League

athletes.

“It’s probably the strength of our team,” Dodd said of the line.

“We return three all-league players who are very good at what they

do.”

Marina welcomes back five starters on both sides of the ball from

a 2003 team that went 3-7 against a murderous schedule.

The Vikings will be looking to add numbers to the win column this

fall, but they’ll attempt to do so against a cast of nonleague

characters -- Newport Harbor, Mission Viejo and Orange Lutheran --

who graced last year’s nonleague schedule.

Mission Viejo and Orange Lutheran reached CIF Southern Section

division championship games last year.

Newport Harbor reached the Division VI playoffs, as did Paramount,

which the Vikings play in the fifth week of the season, and

Capistrano Valley, which Marina takes on Sept. 9 in the season opener

at Westminster High.

“Yeah, it’s a tough one again,” Dodd said of the schedule.

Marina will need its defense to be at its best if it hopes to

contend with the power games of Mission Viejo and Orange Lutheran.

The top players on that defensive line are all-leaguers Malachi

Tukia a 5-foot-10, 225-pound senior, senior Kyle Flanagan (6-2, 220)

and senior John Martinez (6-2, 250).

The linebackers include senior returning starter D.J. Murakami

(6-1, 215), senior outside ‘backer Chris Chelekis (6-1, 225), and

junior John Tran (6-1, 200).

In the secondary, senior Jared Kent (5-10, 180), an all-league

selection last year, leads the way. Also roaming the defensive

backfield will be free safety Luis Gonzalez (6-3, 200), sophomore

Josh Jordan (6-1, 170), senior Jason Hayward (6-0, 170) and Sean

Corcoran, a transfer from Huntington Beach.

“Josh Jordan has had a great summer and will be a corner for us,”

Dodd said.

Marina will turn to senior Dylan Brock (6-1, 175) to step in for

departed Matt Brennan, an all-league quarterback in 2003 who played

in the Orange County All-Star game.

“[Brock] played very little last year but has had a very good

summer,” Dodd said.

The Vikings’ rushing game will consist of senior Jerad Gray (6-2,

210) and seniors Dwight Horton (5-10, 180), both of whom are new to

the program, Dodd said.

If the line is the strength of the defense, then receivers

Hayward, junior Josh Torion Rayford, junior Alex Cerda and senior

Josh Martinez provide the offense’s greatest strength.

All four players return from 2003.

Cerda and Flanagan will play tight end.

Key players along the offensive line will be a trio of juniors in

Tom Chelekis (6-2, 260), center Tom Burns (6-0, 260) and guard Justin

Litrell (6-0, 260).

“We will be good defensively and must progress offensively,” Dodd

said.