ORANGE COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL : Marina Loses Again, Falls Into a Pattern : Vikings Winless in Nonleague Games, as They Were Last Season

Marina High School can only hope history is repeating itself.

Last year, the Vikings lost all five nonleague football games yet went on to win the Sunset League title.

This season, Marina is off to an 0-4 start, its latest loss coming Thursday to Los Alamitos High School, 27-0, at Hanford Rants Stadium in Cerritos.

While Marina has struggled--scoring just 14 points all season and gaining fewer than 200 total yards in its last two games--the Griffins (3-1) have been soaring.

Los Alamitos has outscored opponents, 106-10. The game against Marina, which Griffin Coach John Barnes had expected to present the toughest defense his team had faced, resulted in his team’s third shutout of the season.

“They (the Vikings) do hit hard,” Barnes said. “We must have a pretty good offense.”

What Barnes definitely has is a quick offense, usually going with a speedy huddle and showing the ability to strike like lightning.

On their first possession, the Griffins used just eight plays and less than three minutes to drive 68 yards to score on a 20-yard touchdown run by senior Marcus Garcia. Garcia went on to carry the ball 21 times for 107 yards and three touchdowns.

On its second possession, Los Alamitos drove inside the Vikings’ 15-yard line, but Eric Lange missed a 30-yard field goal attempt. The Griffins made up for the failure, scoring on the first play of their next possession, a 46-yard touchdown pass from Todd Gragnano to Jon Cisneros.

Gragnano, currently rated second among Orange County quarterbacks, completed 10 of 14 passes for 183 yards. The sophomore quarterback has yet to throw an interception.

His Marina counterpart, sophomore David Schultz, has been having a rougher initiation. Schultz completed 6 of 21 passes for 55 yards. He threw one interception, to defensive back Ron Sylvia who ran the ball back 49 yards to set up the Griffins’ third score of the game, Garcia’s 5-yard touchdown run. Marina defensive back Kevin Magula blocked Lange’s conversion kick.

Los Alamitos’ defense was as quick as the offense and sacked Schultz five times for a loss of 37 yards. They also gave up just 60 total rushing yards.

Los Alamitos slowed a bit in the second half, going 95 yards on a drive that used up half the third quarter and part of the fourth and ended with Garcia’s 1-yard touchdown run.