High School Football Preview: Marina eyeing move out of Sunset League

Outside of coach Jeff Turley’s office at Marina High, anyone looking to plop down on a sofa could on Wednesday.

Lined up were several sofas. All that was missing was a TV.

From the look of things, the Vikings were either going to host an outdoor event, or they were moving.

The Vikings could be leaving — the Sunset League that is — after this football season.

With the pending reconfiguration of the Sunset League in football, Marina is hoping to join the Golden West League for the 2018 and ’19 seasons. Right when the Vikings ended their 60-game losing streak in the Sunset League, winning their regular-season finale last year, they appear on the way out.

“A bunch of people joked with me, saying, ‘There you go! You finally win a game in the Sunset League and now they’re going to kick you out! You got them afraid!’” said Turley, who led the Vikings to a 35-7 win against Fountain Valley. “That was a big huge monkey [off our back]. We’ll see how the kids rally back this year. I told them, ‘This is the toughest year. After you do that, it’s what do you do after? Can you back it up again?’ We have talent to try to get it done. It’s just how fast this line comes together.”

One piece of the inexperienced offensive line is Steven Hall, and the senior is vacationing with his family in Europe. Turley didn’t want to know where, only if his left tackle would make it back in time for the season opener against Dana Hills on Aug. 25.

Last year, Marina came out strong out of the gate, winning its first three games. The previous time the program started 3-0 was in 2001, the same year it last made the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Ending Marina’s 16-year postseason drought will be a challenge for Turley, who is in his fourth season in charge of the Vikings. Making the playoffs was routine for Turley before he arrived at Marina, as he was the defensive coordinator at Long Beach Poly from 2001-13.

At Marina, Turley doesn’t have the kind of talent he coached with the Jackrabbits. But there are some seniors — Blaine Riederich, a running back and linebacker, quarterback Ian Green, middle linebacker Seth Bontrager, Brandon Savea, a safety, running back and wide receiver, safety Caden Snyder, and a junior, center Daniel Escamilla — Turley will be counting on this year.

Green is expected to do more than play quarterback. Turley has him as the punter and a return man on special teams.

Riederich, Green, Bontrager, Savea, Snyder, who led the Sunset League with six interceptions in 2016, and Escamilla are returning starters. Riederich plans to make his final year memorable, especially since it might be Marina’s last in the Sunset League. Marina, which opened 54 years ago, has been a member of the league since 1964.

“I think we can win another game this year in league. We have a lot of seniors that are starting this year,” said Riederich, who helped Marina to a 4-6 overall record and 1-4 in league a year ago. “[We] just [want to] win as many games as possible.”

Playing at home in the first couple of weeks will only help Marina’s chances at being successful.

The Vikings play their home games at Westminster High’s Boswell Field. After they kick off the season with Dana Hills, the Vikings face Torrance on Aug. 31.

Ocean View had been Marina’s second game on the schedule the past four years, but Turley said the Seahawks didn’t want to continue the nonleague series.

Marina and Ocean View might renew the rivalry next year, if Marina exits the Sunset League. The Golden West League would turn into an eight-team conference, with local schools Marina, Ocean View and Laguna Beach, and Garden Grove, Godinez, Segerstrom, Western and Westminster.

“I think for us football-wise what was proposed is our best chance of getting into the playoffs,” said Turley, who will learn in October whether Marina moves to the Golden West Conference, or remains in the Sunset League.

“Right now we have 24 freshmen out there, and Edison has [around 70], Los [Alamitos] has [around] 50, and that’s a lot more fish to pool from. If that is the whole thing every year, you’re doubled or tripled in numbers, and you just can’t compete against that. The way the new playoff system is set up, and as I explained to our administration, if we don’t have a legitimate shot at coming in second place, we probably won’t ever make the playoffs [in the Sunset League].

“In our division last year, not one third-place team made the [Division 12] playoffs. We could’ve gone 8-2 [overall and 3-2 in league] last year and not made the playoffs. Look at what happened to Newport Harbor. [The Sailors] got third place in the Sunset League. They’re celebrating, thinking they’re in the [Division 6] playoffs, and they didn’t get in. Huntington Beach ends up getting fourth place in the [league] and they got in [Division 7 playoffs] and [the Oilers] had the same [4-6 regular-season] record as us.”

2017 Schedule

Aug. 25: Dana Hills

Aug. 31: Torrance

Sept. 8: at Westminster

Sept. 15: at Santa Ana

Sept. 29: at Whittier Christian

Oct. 6: Fountain Valley *

Oct. 12: at Los Alamitos *

Oct. 20: at Huntington Beach *

Oct. 27: Newport Harbor *

Nov. 3: Edison *

* denotes Sunset League game

david.carrillo@latimes.com

Twitter: @ByDCP