PREP FOOTBALL : Kennedy Needs a Little Luck to Squeak Past Valencia, 6-3

The Fighting Irish were the lucky Irish.

Kennedy, limited to a handful of yards and plagued by five turnovers, won its third consecutive game Thursday, scoring a 6-3 victory over Valencia at Western High.

Six points. It’s not much, but it’s more than a 31-yard field goal by Joe Secoda.

“If we’re going to win,” Valencia Coach Mike Marrujo said, “we’re going to have to get to the point where we make those plays.”

Those would be the plays that teams have to make, like getting the ball at the opponent’s nine-yard line after an interception and not scoring a touchdown. Or keeping the other team from completing four consecutive passes on the winning drive when they had previously completed only five of 16 passes the whole game. Or three of your four penalties aren’t:

* Offensive holding, wiping out an eight-yard gain from the nine.

* Defensive pass interference, without which it would have been fourth and eight from the Kennedy 34 in the final quarter.

* Facemask, at the end of a five-yard catch that adds 15 yards and puts the ball at the 16.

It was that last penalty that set up Darin Martineau’s 16-yard touchdown run, which culminated a 78-yard drive that began with 3 minutes 48 seconds left. After four consecutive completions by Jason Myles, Martineau stepped out of a leg tackle by Steve Flores five yards behind the line of scrimmage, cut up field and scored with 1:50 to go.

“The guy got me by the legs,” Martineau said, “and I gave it everything I had to get past him.”

Martineau finished with 105 yards in 19 carries. Kennedy (3-1) outgained Valencia (2-1-1), 150-127. Kennedy’s leading rusher, Charlie Marino, played one play--the failed point-after kick--because of a deep triceps bruise.

“We have not turned it on and played as a unit,” said Kennedy Coach Mitch Olson.

“The final drive meant nothing--the defense was unbelievable. The defense allowed us the opportunity to make something happen on a fluke, and that’s what happened. The defense won the game.”

Linebacker Randy Ellison, who missed last week’s 14-8 victory over Corona del Mar, was one of the reasons. And the play of defensive linemen Kai Chuang, Jeff Tow, Brian Stewart and Mike Robertson were some of the others.