The Marine League drama is just beginning

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Whew.

It’s hard to believe either Carson Coach Michael Christensen or Narbonne Coach Manuel Douglas can stand four more weeks of the kind of drama and pressure they went through Friday night.

Carson finally pulled out a 35-31 victory on quarterback Dominique Blackman’s one-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds to play in the Marine League opener for both. But Narbonne wasn’t done until their hook-and-lateral final pass play, where the ball was tossed to four different players before Eddie Mendivil’s throw down field fell incomplete.

There are no breather games in the Marine League -- even winless Gardena is going to cause some problems for someone -- so all victories are precious.

That was the notion put forth by Christensen afterward.

‘I think our tough early schedule helped us tonight,’ he said. ‘Our kids were resilient. We weren’t that good defensively; Narbonne made things happen. But I’m happy with the win.

‘But we’ll have to get ready to climb another mountain next week.’

That would be San Pedro.

- Mike Terry