Marina football dealt first loss of season against Kennedy

Marina watched its perfect season disappear Thursday night, unable to move the ball against a five-man defensive line, surrendering two big first-half plays, then watching Kennedy — looking like the Lambda League’s top team — mount two long scoring drives after the break.

The Fighting Irish romped to an impressive 28-14 home triumph at Western High, creating the possibility of a three-way title share. If Marina (8-1, 3-1 in the Lambda League) next week can beat Beckman — expected to go to 9-0 Friday night against Valencia — and Kennedy (6-3, 3-1) topples one-win Sunny Hills, that’s how it will finish.

“We still can create a three-way tie, and that’s the message,” Vikings coach Charlie TeGantvoort said. “Losing never feels good, but you’ve just got to get over it, carry on, and keep going.”

Kennedy ought to be atop the standings and in line for a 5-0 league campaign. Two bad calls at the goal line, acknowledged by CIF Southern Section refereeing officials, cost it a regulation victory last week over Beckman, which prevailed in overtime.

“That one hurt, but we didn’t take a step back this week and feel sorry for ourselves,” Fighting Irish coach Dan Urbano said. “We stepped up and put up a fight. ... I’m rooting for those guys next week. Go Marina!”

Marina struggled to create on offense. It went three-and-out four times in the first half, managed just three first downs before the fourth quarter — one of them a couple of steps before a lost fumble — and totaled just 164 yards, most of it on Gabe Carles’ 106 rushing yards. He reached triple digits for the third time this season with a 34-yard gain that fueled the Vikings’ lone extended drive, an 11-play march early in the fourth quarter that bogged down in the red zone and ended on a fourth-down, end-zone incompletion.

The teams traded first-half touchdowns on punt returns — Shayden Sorochman going 75 yards not quite three minutes in to put Marina ahead, and Deon Bynum answering with a 64-yard touchdown three plays into the second quarter — before Kennedy took its first lead on Devin Almazan’s 40-yard bomb to Bynum, after the ball was stripped from Carles’ hands, four minutes before the break.

Carles pulled the Vikings even again in the first half’s final minute, diving in on a 3-yard run two plays after a bad snap on a Kennedy punt provided first down at the 8-yard line.

Marina started the second half nicely, recovering an onside kick, then Bynum picked off a pass, and it was the Fighting Irish’s game the rest of the way. They drove 80 and 84 yards on successive drives behind running back Isaac Talamantes, who scored both touchdowns, the first on the second play of the fourth quarter and the last with 2:11 to go, three plays after he was caught at the 4-yard line on a run from midfield.

“We made a lot of mistakes, and you can’t make miscues, especially against a talented, fast team ...,” TeGantvoort said. “Every loss provides an opportunity to learn, and as long as we’re learning, we’ll get better.”

Marina had been unbeaten before after nine games, going 8-0-1 before losing in its Sunset League finale in 1979, and were aiming to claim a fourth league championship in six years at 10-0. The title remains within grasp.

“Now we feel like we didn’t fulfill our goal, but that doesn’t mean anything, because we could still be league champs,” Carles said. “We’ve got to grip onto that losing feeling and use it to get more energy for the rest of the season.”

Lambda League

Kennedy 28, Marina 14

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Marina 7 - 7 - 0 - 0 — 14

Kennedy 0 - 14 - 0 - 14 — 28

FIRST QUARTER

M — Sorochman 75 punt return (Scolfield kick), 9:12.

SECOND QUARTER

K — Bynum 64 punt return (Martinez kick), 10:16.

K — Bynum 40 pass from Dev. Almazan (Martinez kick), 4:08.

M — Carles 3 run (Scolfield kick), 0:54.

THIRD QUARTER

None.

FOURTH QUARTER

K — Talamantes 6 run (Martinez kick), 11:15.

K — Talamantes 2 run (Martinez kick), 2:11.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

M — Carles, 22-106, 1 TD.

K — Talamantes, 18-132, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

M — Hunnicutt, 9-21-1, 50.

K — Dev. Almazan, 14-24-0, 151, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

M — Russell, 1-27.

K — Banks, 4-48.