Marina football defies odds, beats Beckman for share of Lambda League title

WESTMINSTER —  Marina could not have concocted more calamitous conditions for such an important outing — none more so than six turnovers, three of them red-zone interceptions — and ought to have folded in its showdown with unbeaten Beckman for a share of the first Lambda League championship.

The Vikings instead rode a sensational defensive effort, three big Shane Cassidy receptions, and the resilience of quarterback Garrett Hunnicutt, whose end-zone leap at the finish crowned a 27-24 double-overtime triumph in a wild, weird encounter Friday night at Westminster High School.

Marina (9-1, 4-1 in the Lambda League), coming off a dismal loss last week to Kennedy, gave the ball away on four of its first five possessions — with a pair of fumbled pooch kickoffs to start the second half amid them — but somehow stayed close enough to the Patriots (9-1, 4-1) to reign at the finish.

“We did everything wrong, except win,” said Marina coach Charlie TeGantvoort, whose team overcame a late 14-6 deficit. “Everything went wrong, except the score and except our effort. This shows you your effort can go a long way.”

It gave Marina back-to-back league titles and four in six seasons — the other three in the Big 4 League — and is Beckman’s first since 2011. Kennedy (7-3, 4-1) also won a share with a 28-20 victory over Sunny Hills, its first championship since 2007. Playoff brackets will be released Sunday morning.

The Vikings, missing all three starting defensive linemen, limited Beckman to two touchdowns off the miscues and came up big in the final minute of regulation and on the verge of defeat in overtime. The first touchdown came on a 96-yard drive following the first of three Noah Czaykowski interceptions inside the Patriots 20; the next, for a 14-6 advantage, from a short field after the second-half kickoff bounced off Landon Holmwood’s helmet and into Nathan Garcia’s arms.

Marina used half the fourth quarter on a 15-play, 75-yard march for the tying points. Cassidy grabbed a fluttering pass as he tumbled at the back of the end zone with 57.5 seconds left, and overtime arrived after Hunnicutt hit Gabe Carles, on the ground a yard inside the end zone, on the two-point conversion.

Hunnicutt’s winning leap at the end came three plays after Cassidy’s difficult 25-yard catch at the 3 — he reached to tip the ball, then pulled it down — on fourth-and-13.

“Honestly, that’s just Shane,” Hunnicutt said. “Shane’s the guy you go to when you need a big play. Shane’s the guy that’s going to get the job done for the team. Shane’s our guy.”

Things went wrong almost from the start for the Vikings. Czaykowski picked off Hunnicutt at the 6-yard line on a deflected pass after they’d converted twice on fourth down to reach the red zone on their first possession, and Beckman went ahead on the first play of the second quarter, a Drexel Gibson run five plays following Czaykowski’s 48-yard reception into the red zone.

Marina survived the second interception, then Cassidy streaked behind the Patriots’ secondary for a 54-yard score about midway through the second quarter. Beckman maintained the lead when Garcia blocked Caiden Scolfield’s extra-point try.

Next Marina possession, another Czaykowski interception — in the end zone, 34 seconds before halftime, after the Vikings reached the Patriots 13 on back-to-back completions to Aidan Hunt and Shayden Sorochman covering 41 yards.

Then things turned weird, with the pooch-kick turnover — Makhi Czaykowski, Noah’s younger brother, ran three times, the last for points — and Beckman had the ball again on an identical kickoff with identical results. The Patriots got to the 13 before a holding penalty and Talon Acosta sack, and Gui DeLuca’s 40-yard field-goal attempt was more than long enough but a tad too far right.

Noah Czaykowski’s third interception (and eighth of the season), at the goal line, killed a nearly seven-minute Vikings drive to the Beckman 7 yard line two plays into the fourth quarter.

“I had a rough [stretch], and all my guys rallied around me and kept everything positive,” Hunnicutt said. “That helped with everything. That helped me stay focused and [in] control.”

Marina’s defense — led by linebacker Jake Russell and getting strong play by replacement linemen Acosta, Logan Fulford, Brandon Atchison and Emitt Been — kept the game close. It forced four punts, two on three-and-outs, and permitted the Patriots just 288 yards of offense, 48 of which came in overtime.

“They keep fighting, they keep coming,” TeGantvoort said. “It’s the same kids, both sides of the ball, and it just says something about their character. No matter what adversity strikes them, they keep going forward, and that’s something that’s going to pay off the rest of their lives.”

It all paid off on Cassidy’s 11-yard touchdown grab in the final minute. Marina got the ball first in overtime, with the ball at the 25, and Carles scored from the 1-yard line on the sixth play. Beckman answered, getting through two fourth downs en route to Nick Fernandez’s 3-yard finish.

Beckman then got the ball for the second overtime and, after being stuffed on second- and third-down runs just inside the 10, settled for a DeLuca field goal. That might have been enough after Hunnicutt was sacked at the 28 on third down, but Cassidy’s catch and the quarterback’s leap — on a broken play — sparked a spirited celebration.

The winning play, on third down at the 1-yard line, “was supposed to be a handoff [to Carles] on my right side, but we were miscommunicating,” Hunnicutt said. “I turned, and he wasn’t there. It was my fault. I just tucked [the ball], put my head down and left the ground.

“[When I landed] everything goes away. All that worry. Everything left my body, and it was the best feeling in the world.”

Lambda League

Marina 27, Beckman 24 (2 OT)

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Beckman 0 - 7 - 7 - 0 - 7 - 3 — 21

Marina 0 - 6 - 0 - 8 - 7 - 6 — 27

FIRST QUARTER

None.

SECOND QUARTER

B — Gibson 5 run (DeLuca kick), 11:56.

M — Cassidy 54 pass from Hunnicutt (Scolfield kick blocked), 5:39.

THIRD QUARTER

B — M. Czaykowski 6 run (DeLuca kick), 10:12.

FOURTH QUARTER

M — Cassidy 11 pass from Hunnicutt (Carles pass from Hunnicutt), 0:57.5.

FIRST OVERTIME

M — Carles 2 run (Scolfield kick).

B — Hernandez 3 run (DeLuca kick).

SECOND OVERTIME

B — DeLuca 25 FG.

M — Hunnicutt 1 run.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

B — M. Czaykowski, 12-78, 1 TD.

M — Carles, 27-90, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

B — Nam, 14-21-0, 141.

M — Hunnicutt, 11-16-4, 187, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

B — N. Czaykowski, 7-101.

M — Cassidy, 3-90, 2 TDs.