Marina shuts down Valencia for first Lambda League win

WESTMINSTER — Marina bounced back from a disappointing defeat in its Lambda League opener, and massively so, riding its best performance of the season — both sides of the ball — to a commanding triumph decided almost from the start.

The Vikings opened with a grinding, eight-and-a-half minute touchdown drive and followed with four quick spurts Friday night for a 35-7 rout of visiting Placentia Valencia at Westminster High’s Boswell Field, an outcome constructed primarily through their defensive front-middle five.

Francis Saporito completed seven of eight throws for 54 yards and a touchdown and ran for another 62 yards and two scores, all in the first half, while Marina’s defense forced six successive three-and-outs deep into the third quarter and lost its shutout in a running-clock fourth quarter long after the starters were done.

It was a welcome narrative after a 28-21 loss eight nights earlier to Sunny Hills, a game in which the Vikings (5-2, 1-1 in the Lambda League) questioned their effort and believed, Saporito noted, “we beat ourselves, definitely should have won.”

“It was an inspiring game,” said third-year head coach Charlie TeGantvoort, who guided Marina to the Big 4 League championship two years ago and a share of last year’s inaugural Lambda League title. “Just a lot of our guys just playing hard, playing for each other.

“It was a redemption week. You know, we felt like we let it get away from us last week, and we really wanted to focus and get back on the right track.”

The Vikings’ swarming defense permitted Valencia (1-6, 0-2) 6 rushing yards and quarterback Adrian Hurtado a 0-for-6 first half and didn’t allow an earned first down until barely two minutes remained in the third quarter. Their three-and-out stretch comes with an asterisk: The Tigers’ lone first down until it was 35-0 came from a second-quarter roughing-the-punter penalty.

The front five — linemen Brandon Atchison, Alberto Herrera and Gage Rinaldi, and inside linebackers Jackson Moore and Brayden O’Rourke, all but Rinaldi seniors — clamped down on a Valencia attack that gained 5 yards just once and 1 or fewer 15 times on 23 snaps before the gains that produced the third-quarter first down. The Tigers totaled 15 yards to that point.

“Our D-line played out of their minds,” TeGantvoort said. “And then our inside backers, well, when your box of defense is playing so hard and are just tough guys, you’re able to do some good things.”

Saporito ran an efficient attack that marched 62 yards over 16 plays for the first score — a 6-yard, fourth-down pass to Gunnar Mickelson — then romped on the other four touchdown drives, which collectively took 14 plays and less than four and a half minutes.

Two long Saporito runs around right end, a 25-yard sprint two plays into the second quarter and a weaving 31-yarder two possessions later, made for a 21-0 lead.

“So we ran the play the first time,” Saporito said, “and I gave the ball off [to Ryder Wells, for a 12-yard gain] when I probably should have took it myself, and then my coach had us run it again, so that was the signal, ‘Hey, take the ball.’ And then we scored [when I did], and then next [time], same thing.

“It was something that we adjusted for this week, so it was awesome to see it work in our game plan and see it play out the way we want it to.”

Ben Ramos, who ran for 75 yards on a dozen carries, made it 28-0 with a 15-yard run on Marina’s initial second-half possession and sophomore Lucas Delgado raced 40 yards on the first play two drives later for the fifth touchdown.

Valencia gained 63 of its 90 yards on its final drive, with Hurtado hitting Jackson Dias for gains of 23, 15 and 11 yards — the first a spectacular, twisting catch, the last on fourth down — to set up Andrew Mendez’s 2-yard touchdown reception.

Marina is among four 1-1 teams in the Lambda League — Fullerton (5-2), Sunny Hills (5-2) and fellow defending tri-champion Kennedy (4-3) — chasing Beckman (4-3, 2-0), which also shared last year’s title and claimed the league’s only playoff victory. TeGantvoort likes his team’s chances.

“We’ve been a team trying to figure it out all year, and we had a lot of new guys start the season that never started before,” he said. “But they’re finding their groove. They’re starting to understand that they’re a good team. They just got to be tough and play hard. ... Be tough, play hard, anything can happen.”

Lambda League

Marina 35, Valencia 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Valencia 0 - 0 - 0 - 7 — 7

Marina 7 - 14 - 14 - 0 — 35

FIRST QUARTER

M — Mickelson 6 pass from Saporito (Vergara kick), 3:21.

SECOND QUARTER

M — Saporito 25 run (Vergara kick), 11:36.

M — Saporito 31 run (Vergara kick), 2:56.

THIRD QUARTER

M — Ramos 16 run (Vergara kick), 9:23.

M — Delgado 40 run (Vergara kick), 4:58.

FOURTH QUARTER

V — Mendez 2 pass from Hurtado (Feregrino kick), 3:39.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

V — Nicholas, 12-16; Dias, 3-12; Lazcano, 1-0; Hurtado, 1-(-1); Team, 1-(-3).

M — Ramos, 12-75, 1 TD; Saporito, 5-62, 2 TDs; Delgado, 7-44, 1 TD; O’Rourke, 6-27; Neidlinger, 2-14; Wells, 1-12; Hunnicutt, 1-4.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

V — Hurtado, 8-18-0, 66, 1 TD.

M — Saporito, 7-8-0, 54, 1 TD; Neidlinger, 0-1-0, 0.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

V — Dias, 4-52; Mendez, 3-11, 1 TD; Nicholas, 1-3.

M — Mickelson, 3-24, 1 TD; Wells, 2-18; Hunnicutt, 2-12.