High School Football Player of the Week: Isaia Regan is Marina’s dominant force in the trenches
Marina High hadn’t tasted real success on a football field in generations, but that was merely fuel for a senior-heavy group that has carried the Vikings to a surprising league championship — their first in 33 years — a No. 2 ranking in their division, and a real shot at the program’s first CIF Southern Section title.
Senior lineman Isaia Regan personifies what Marina football has become, and the celebration following last week’s 25-14 triumph over previously unbeaten Segerstrom and the share of the Big 4 League title that came with it had plenty to do with his work.
Football games are won in the trenches, and Regan — a starter at defensive tackle since the latter half of his sophomore year and a first-team offensive lineman this season — rules the trenches for the Vikings. With Regan, Marina clinched an undefeated league crown with Thursday’s 28-6 win at Garden Grove in a regular-season finale.
And when one of the hugest challenges arrived on Oct. 25, Regan was at his best.
Regan, who stands 6-foot-3, 250 pounds, made six tackles, knocked down a pass, and sacked Jaguars quarterback Angel Vega three times, stripping away the ball on one of them, with Wyatt McClour scooping it up and racing 67 yards for a touchdown. And he was crucial at right guard as the Vikings put more points on the scoreboard than any Segerstrom foe since 2017.
“He’s just a dominant force. He’s unstoppable ...,” said Marina coach Jeff Turley, whose team is No. 2 in the Division 11 poll. “He’s got quick hands, he’s quick off the ball, he’s got size that isn’t easy to move. He’s one of those kids that don’t stay blocked. You may get him, but you’re not going to [keep him].”
Regan, a second-team All-Big 4 selection as a junior, has moved around the offensive line, settling in as a guard after mostly playing as a tackle, a switch that better enables the Vikings to use his savvy in opening holes and clearing paths leading ballcarriers to the opponent’s secondary.
“You don’t want to stand on the train track,” Turley noted, when Regan comes rolling through. Regan, who has drawn interest from NCAA Division III University of Puget Sound, prefers the other side of the ball.
“I’m 100% more of a defensive guy,” he said. “There’s nothing like defense. You have one job and it’s pretty much get the quarterback or hit somebody, you know? On offense, it takes a lot more ‘you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that,’ where on defense you have your assignment and then you go pretty much all out.”
Regan went into this week with 36 tackles, five tackles for loss and five sacks this season, healthy numbers for an interior lineman, but his strip-sack of Vega was highlight-reel material. Marina was holding onto a 6-0 first-quarter lead, and Segerstrom, which went into the game 8-0, had quickly driven into the Vikings’ red zone.
“We’d been working on defense where they like to run outside a lot, so me and the other DT, Asah [Harris], we would switch to ends,” Regan explained. “So then we apply pressure on the outside, and they couldn’t run through the hole. So we applied the pressure, defensive end Seth Wilson applied pressure from the right side [and] pressured [Vega] to me, and the quarterback had nowhere to go, and I got him.
“And I tried to flip him around, of course, and I ended up getting the strip. Then seeing Wyatt run the 67 yards, it was great. It was great.”
It was a pivotal moment in claiming the Vikings’ first league title since claiming the Sunset League in 1986. This is the program’s first winning season since 2000, and Marina (8-2, 3-0 in league) is headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
The Vikings earn their first undefeated league crown in 33 years with Thursday’s 28-6 victory. Marina wins eight games for the first time since 1985.
Marina has won eight games in a season for the first time since 1985. The program had won more than three games in a season just once since its 2001 playoff appearance — there were eight one- or no-win campaigns in that span — and lost 65 of its last 66 Sunset League games before moving to the new Big 4 League last year. The difference this year is a motivated senior class, 25 strong.
“[Most] of them have been together since freshman year, and they’ve really worked together and set this goal and standard for themselves as a senior class,” said Turley, whose team will learn of its first-round opponent on Sunday, when the section releases the playoff pairings. “When you’ve got good senior leadership, you’re going to do well.”
Regan, one of the Vikings’ captains, says his class’ mentality is different than its predecessors’.
“We’ve been with each other since the start, and we knew this year,” he said. “In the past, [Marina teams] haven’t had the mentality to fight. Last year, we’d be down 7-0 and some people would throw in the towel. This year, we don’t expect to lose anymore. That’s the key factor.”
Isaia Regan
Born: Sept. 9, 2001
Hometown: Huntington Beach
Height: 6 feet 3
Weight: 250 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Senior
Coach: Jeff Turley
Favorite food: Sushi
Favorite movie: “Halloween”
Favorite athletic moment: “Seeing how happy Coach Turley was” after beating Segerstrom to win Marina’s first league title in 33 years.
Week in review: Regan, a two-way lineman, was pivotal as the Vikings toppled previously perfect Segerstrom 25-14 on Oct. 25 at Westminster High to clinch a share of the Big 4 League title, the program’s first league championship since 1986. On defense, Regan forced a fumble that was returned for a touchdown, registered three sacks, had six tackles — four of them solos — and batted down a pass, and he was key on the offensive line as Marina outgained the Jaguars 310-255.
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