A Kick in Time Saves 9-9 Tie for Marina

The 20 stitches in his nose that Ben Lefrancois will bring back as a souvenir from his trip to Hawaii were easy to endure in light of a more pleasant memory he has of the Islands.

The junior from Marina High School hardly felt a thing when he was hit by a stray surfboard on Saturday at Waikiki. The euphoria of the night before, when Lefrancois kicked a 47-yard field goal as time ran out to give his team a 9-9 tie with St. Louis High School of Honolulu, still hadn’t begun to fade.

It might have just started to sink in, making the ordeal of five hours of treatment for his injury a little more tolerable. Lefrancois had missed field goals of 51 and 36 yards, as well as an extra point earlier in the game, played late Friday night at Kaiser High School. But in his first varsity game, he ended up the hero.

Trailing 9-6, the Vikings had driven from their 10-yard line to St. Louis’ 25, but fumbled with 1:24 left to play. Using its last two timeouts, the Marina defense held. St. Louis was forced to punt, the kick was poor, and the Vikings took over on their opponents’ 39 with 25 seconds left.

Rick Vanderriet completed a 9-yard pass to Brian Sterzer on first down. His next pass attempt fell incomplete in the end zone, and just two seconds remained on the clock.

“We decided we had a much better chance to kick a field goal than to get it into the end zone,” Marina Coach Dave Thompson said. “When you’re 30 yards out, the chances of scoring are slim. Tying is better than losing.”

In came Lefrancois, who managed to forget his earlier failures and think only about the present.

“I was just trying to calm myself down, ‘cause I was really nervous,” he said. “Right before the kick, I was shaking. But I just concentrated on the ball and didn’t even watch the snap.”

The Vikings scored first on a 3-yard touchdown run by Bill Craft in the second quarter, after Todd Destatte intercepted a pass and returned it 12 yards to the St. Louis 19.

St. Louis, the No. 1 ranked high school team in Hawaii last season, kicked a 17-yard field goal late in the first half, then went ahead on a 59-yard interception return with 45 seconds left in the third quarter.