ORANGE COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL : Pacifica Holds Off El Modena, 6-0 : Mariners, After Two Near Misses, Win First of Season

Pacifica High School’s Mariners can never quite kick back and relax. Something’s always happening to this crew just when it seems it can crowd around the Gatorade and click on the mellow tunes.

This is a team that would have a tire blowout on the way to Disneyland.

Those maddening little things have just kept happening to the Mariners this season. There was that hollow feeling in their second game when Oscar Ravelo missed four field goals so the Mariners merely tied a Long Beach Millikan team, 7-7, that they could have beaten. And then, there was that haunting missed extra point that cost them their season opener agaist Villa Park, 7-6.

Once again, the Mariners were wearily looking over their shoulders Friday night in their third game before they held on to shutout El Modena, 6-0, at Bolsa Grande High School. In so doing, they may have changed their luck.

In the first quarter, Ravelo, who happens to play defensive back, punter and kicker when he isn’t running the ball, broke loose on a sweep and ran 91 yards for a touchdown. That would prove to be the game’s only score as his extra point attempt was blocked.

For the rest of the game, the Mariners had no chance to relax. A touchdown and an extra point were all that was necessary to beat them. All El Modena needed was a single long pass or a break away run like Ravelo’s.

They would get neither as Todd Veneman, Derek Hickman and other members of Pacifica’s defensive front were able to stop the Vanguards’ running game. Pat Beborio managed only 42 yards in 14 carries.

Meanwhile, the secondary limited El Modena quarterback Trey Frank to 49 yards passing in the first half, most of that coming on a single 21-yard play. The defense once stopped a Vanguard drive at its own 17.

The offense, meanwhile, was unable to give the defense any breathing room. Even though Ravelo would wind up with 176 yards rushing on 22 carries, he would be kept out of the end zone. Bobby Anderson, the sophomore quarterback, would complete one of only five passes for 10 yards.

So you can imagine the Mariners sense of deja vu as they watched El Modena start a drive on its own 31-yard line and, after three pass completions, was suddenly on Pacifica’s 17-yard line with less than a minute remaining.

But, then the Mariners luck changed. When Frank again was throwing for the end zone, Pacifica’s Dan Blaue intercepted the pass at the 10, and his offense then ran out the few remaining seconds on the clock.

“You kind of hold your breath when you see a drive like that,” Pacifica Coach Bill Craven said. “We had so many guys going both ways, we could’ve folded our tent then. But we didn’t.”

For their efforts, the Mariners (1-1-1) got their first victory of the season and a week to relax before they would have to worry about something sneaking up on them again.