Marina football improves to 5-1 with victory at Laguna Beach

The sting of last football season’s three-point loss to Laguna Beach High festered in Marina coach Jeff Turley’s head for nearly a year.

The memory of that loss drove Turley and the Vikings to a 28-14 nonleague victory at Laguna Beach on Friday.

“We looked at the film,” Turley said, referring to last year’s 21-18 setback to the Breakers. “I know the coaches and I talked about it. We let it slip away last year, and it was obviously one of the things we wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to let it slip away again.”

The Vikings are a different team this year. They improved to 5-1, marking the first time the program has won five games in a season since 2001. That year was also the last time Marina qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Marina has one more nonleague game, against Spokane (Wash.) Mead at Westminster High on Oct. 11, before it begins Big 4 League play with Westminster on Oct. 18.

Marina quarterback Gavin Del Toro completed five of 12 passes for 76 yards and two touchdowns against Laguna Beach. He broke off a 61-yard touchdown run on a night where he also rushed for 106 yards.

Eric Church and Dane Brenton each caught a touchdown pass for the Vikings, ranked No. 5 in the CIF Southern Section Divison 11 poll.

Laguna Beach quarterback Andrew Johnson was busy Friday, completing 16 of 42 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown. He also added a rushing touchdown.

Marina struggled with discipline issues early. The team’s first drive stalled after a 15-yard personal foul penalty and a fumbled snap on third down that was recovered by Laguna Beach.

Marina’s second drive also looked promising when Del Toro found Brenton for a 67-yard touchdown pass that was negated by an illegal man downfield penalty.

The Vikings got out of their own way on their third drive in the waning seconds of the first quarter. Del Toro found Church for a 28-yard touchdown pass, giving the Vikings a 7-0 lead.

Laguna Beach (4-2) struck back when sophomore running back Tyler Fields broke a 26-yard run that ended in a 15-yard personal foul committed by Marina for a late hit. Six plays later, on second-and-goal from the two-yard line, Johnson dove under the offensive line and into the end zone to tie the game at 7-7.

With 3:45 remaining in the first half, Del Toro took the ball himself on a run-pass option and scrambled 61 yards to put the Vikings back in front 14-7.

“I just saw the defensive end crash, and I saw the linebacker take off, so I used my wheels,” Del Toro said.

Laguna Beach responded with just over two minutes left in the first half. Johnson dropped back and found Raul Villalobos along the left sideline for a 62-yard reception that Villalobos punctuated by juking the final Marina defender before scoring to make it 14-14.

Marina took the lead back with 57 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Del Toro evaded a sack, jumped and completed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brenton to give the Vikings a 21-14 lead.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Vikings put the game out of reach. Pharoah Rush broke consecutive runs of 11 and 15 yards to push Marina into the red zone. Two plays later, Ryan Escamilla punched the ball in from a yard out for the game’s final score.

Laguna Beach coach John Shanahan saw his team struggle with a physically bigger opponent.

“They are humongous on the D-line, we’re tiny on the O-line,” he said. “We gotta play next to a perfect game in order to beat teams like that, and we didn’t. We didn’t come close to playing a perfect game.”

Nonleague

Marina 28, Laguna Beach 14

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Marina 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 — 28

Laguna Beach 0 –14 – 0 – 0 —0

FIRST QUARTER

M – Church 28 pass from Del Toro (Church kick), 0:27.

SECOND QUARTER

LB – Johnson 2 run (Kesler kick), 6:59.

M – Del Toro 61 run (Church kick), 3:45.

LB – Villalobos 62 pass from Johnson (Kesler kick) 2:06.

THIRD QUARTER

M – Brenton 12 pass from Del Toro (Church kick), :57.

FOURTH QUARTER

M – Escamilla 1 run (Church kick), 2:25.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

M – Del Toro, 9-106, 1 TD.

LB – Fields, 11-38.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

M – Del Toro, 5-12 76, 2 TDs.

LB – Johnson, 16-42 235, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

M – Church 1-28, 1 TD.

LB – Villalobos 3-88, 1 TD.

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