Orange County Prep Football : So Far, Fountain Valley and Marina Can’t Lose

Guess who’s leading the Sunset League football standings? Did you say Westminster High School, ranked No. 17 in the nation by USA Today in the preseason? How about Edison, the defending Big Five Conference co-champion? Wrong on both counts. Fountain Valley and Marina, which entered league play with 0-5 records, are both unbeaten in league play. Fountain Valley (2-0, 2-5) travels to Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium tonight to play Westminster (1-1, 3-3-1). Marina (2-0, 2-5) plays host to Huntington Beach (0-2, 2-5) at Westminster High. Both games begin at 7:30.

Fountain Valley was expected to start slowly. The Barons were starting 13 underclassmen, including sophomore quarterback David Henigan and junior running backs Ray Luckey and Derek Tuescher.

Key injuries have hurt Marina. The Vikings lost running back Sean Magula with an ankle injury and linebacker Todd Destatte with a pulled Achilles’ tendon in their season opener against Esperanza.

The teams also played a difficult nonleague schedule. Marina’s five opponents have a combined record of 25-8-1 after seven weeks. Fountain Valley’s opponents are 24-10.

“It’s been a maturation process,” said Mike Milner, Fountain Valley coach. “We played a heavy preseason schedule, but the experience we gained from that is now paying big dividends.

“Sure, it was discouraging to lose, but we almost beat Servite and played evenly with Long Beach Poly. Then, we were fortunate to start the league on a positive note.”

The Barons outscored Ocean View and Huntington Beach by a combined 52-21 margin. The Barons’ defensive front line of juniors Brian Lenzkes, Reza Mehdizadeh and Greg Munck, was impressive in both victories.

“Those three played the best game collectively by three linemen in the last seven or eight years here,” Milner said.

Marina’s resurgence can be traced to the return of Magula and Destatte. Magula has rushed for 232 yards since returning to the lineup two weeks ago against Edison. Destatte has helped the Vikings limit opponents to 14 points in their last two games.

“We haven’t had an offensive turnover in our last two games,” said Andy Donegan, the Vikings’ defensive coordinator. “I would estimate that half the points we gave up in our opening five games came after turnovers.”

Magula’s presence has helped to take some pressure off quarterback Rick Vanderriet. He had his best game of the season last week, passing for 105 yards and rushing for 2 touchdowns in a 33-7 victory over Ocean View.

“I don’t know if we’ve turned around the season or not,” Donegan said. “We beat an Edison team that was physically beat up. We had a shaky 13-7 lead over a poor Ocean View team going into the fourth quarter.”

Milner, the dean of the Sunset League coaches, said the eventual league champion “could be undefeated, go 4-1 or be 3-2. Anyone can win on a given night except Ocean View. A lot of things will happen in the next three weeks.”

In other games at 7:30 tonight:

Century League--Villa Park (0-2, 2-5) vs. Santa Ana Valley (0-2, 1-6) at Santa Ana Stadium: Santa Ana Valley came close to recording the biggest upset of the season, holding a 6-5 lead over Foothill late in the fourth quarter last week before losing, 11-6. Villa Park has allowed an average of 23.6 points per game.

Empire League--Pacifica (2-2, 3-4) vs. Cypress (2-2, 4-3) at Handel Stadium (Western High School): A loss will virtually eliminate one team from playoff contention in the eight-team league. Pacifica relies on quick junior Ray Willis (628 yards). Cypress counters with Blaise Bryant (922 yards).

Pacific Coast League--Trabuco Hills (0-2, 3-4) vs. Orange (2-0, 4-3) at Fred Kelly Stadium (El Modena High School): The Panthers’ Paul Maund is the county’s fourth-leading rusher with 863 yards and 8 touchdowns. Trabuco Hills wide receiver Jeff Dooley has caught 28 passes for 553 yards.

South Coast League--Irvine (0-2, 1-6) vs. El Toro (2-0, 7-0) at Mission Viejo High School: Quarterback Bret Johnson has thrown for 1,390 yards and 15 touchdowns for the county’s No. 1-ranked team, but it was wide receiver Scott Miller’s touchdown pass off a faked field-goal try that gave El Toro a 17-15 victory over Capistrano Valley last week.