Taft Marks Its First Victory

On your Marks. . . .

Taft High finally found its stride after stumbling out of the starting blocks in defending its City Section championship, holding off Kennedy, 24-19, Friday night in a nonleague game.

More accurately, Lee Marks found his stride.

The 5-foot-9, 170-pound junior tailback rushed for 246 yards and a touchdown in 34 carries, outrunning defenders on sweeps and darting up the middle on draws.

But Marks’ biggest two plays were aside from his ball-carrying.

Kennedy was driving midway through the fourth quarter when Marks intercepted a pass at the Taft 27-yard line to protect a 17-13 lead.

It was one of only a handful of errant passes by Ruben Zaragoza of Kennedy, who completed 30 of 43 for 287 yards with one interception.

Taft quickly capitalized. On third and nine, Brandon Hance hit Greig Carlson on a streak for a 61-yard gain. Two Marks runs netted only two yards, and on third down, Hance again pitched to his tailback.

This time, Marks pulled up and lofted a perfect spiral to Carlson in the back of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown and a 24-13 lead.

Taft (1-3) had surrendered 115 points in falling to Banning, Locke and Dorsey.

“It’s about time we won,” shouted Brandon Walker, a senior lineman who pulled in front of Marks on sweeps to make several key blocks.

Kennedy (3-1) marched up and down the field in its no-huddle, run-and-shoot offense, gaining 384 yards. However, the Golden Cougars had trouble getting into the end zone and hurt themselves with 105 yards in penalties.

Taft led, 7-0, at halftime despite Kennedy gaining 174 yards. A 40-yard run on a draw by Marks put the ball on the one-yard line early in the second quarter and Hance dived across for the touchdown.

No surprise there. Coach Troy Starr abhors handoffs inside the five-yard line. The touchdown was Hance’s sixth of the season.

Taft threatened to pull away early in the third quarter.

A 26-yard pass to Carlson, who had 147 yards on six catches, and a 22-yard reception by Chris Morgan set up a 24-yard field goal by Anthony Ploesch on Taft’s first possession, and a 38-yard scoring run by Marks made the score 17-0 with 7:18 left in the quarter.

Kennedy roared back, however, overcoming 30 yards in penalties to move 65 yards in 10 plays, scoring on a 10-yard run by Jerome Williams.

Linebacker Brandon Robinson of Kennedy recovered a fumble by Marks on Taft’s next play, and James Norris scored from 12 yards on a reverse to trim the deficit to 17-13 with 2:38 left in the third quarter.

However, Marks was relentless, carrying 10 times on a 13-play drive that ended on an interception by Hector Arrieta after Taft had driven to the two only to be penalized on five consecutive plays.

Kennedy appeared to seize the momentum, but Marks’ interception came moments later.

Williams ran 12 yards for Kennedy’s last score with 1:53 to play, but Taft recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.

Every time the Toreadors were in danger of losing their fire, Marks provided the sparks.

“I felt I was getting stronger as the game went on,” he said. “The whole line got stronger too. It was nice to get out and be physical.”