A rivalry renewed

For the third time in three years, Marina High and Ocean View will clash in a nonleague prep football game. The renewed series is tied, 1-1, heading into Friday’s 7 p.m. meeting at Ocean View High.

For the third time, as well, the game will serve as Ocean View’s season opener.

The series between the neighboring schools resumed in 2013, the first game between the one-time Sunset League rivals since 1993. Marina won that first game (33-14) two years ago, but the Seahawks evened things up with a 7-6 win last year.

“I think the game is great for the community as many of the kids from both schools are Huntington Beach grown,” Ocean View Coach Luis Nunez said. “The game has had great crowds the last two years and it’s just, overall, a great atmosphere to be at Friday night.”

Marina has a game under its belt. The Vikings opened their season last Friday in Aliso Viejo and lost, 40-21, to Aliso Niguel. Sophomore running back Blaine Reiderich rushed for a game-high 67 yards and scored twice, and senior quarterback Dominic Gonzalez and junior receiver Noah Holmes teamed on a 33-yard scoring pass for the Vikings’ other score.

The Vikings were without two key starters, senior fullback/linebacker/special teams Max Melfi and junior tailback/safety/special teams Cooper Malerstein, for their opener.

“Obviously, we were frustrated with the outcome because it wasn’t what we expected,” Marina Coach Jeff Turley said. “We didn’t play as we had been during the summer. I refer to missed opportunities — we had several last week, to winning money. Looking at game film, we lost a lot of money.

“One thing we definitely need to do, is have better practices this week to prepare for Ocean View. We’ll work with our receivers on securing the ball, and work on tackling on the other side of the ball.”

Ocean View, 7-4 and a CIF Southern Section playoff participant last year, scrimmaged Long Beach St. Anthony last week.

“The team is very excited to finally kick off the season and opening with Marina adds to the excitement,” Nunez said. “They are anxious to put last year behind them, and determined to show everyone that last year’s season wasn’t a fluke.

“Marina is very big up front, so we will have to play tough Friday night. The kids know it will be a dogfight as we know Marina will give us their best effort after losing to us last year. We will have to settle in early and hopefully our kids can limit mistakes and turnovers. We have a lot of kids who will have to grow up fast Friday night.”

Other Friday games:

Buena Park (1-0) vs. Edison (0-1)

(7 p.m., Huntington Beach High)

Edison will attempt to bounce back from a season-opening loss to Tesoro when it takes on high-flying Buena Park in the first meeting between the programs.

The Chargers, who carried a No. 9 ranking in the CIF Southern Section West Valley Division preseason poll, suffered a 35-16 loss to Tesoro, preseason No. 5 in the division. The Chargers led early (3-0) but quarterback Devon Modster brought the Titans back by rushing for three first-half scores and passed for two more in the second half.

“He’s really good and I think he’s the best pass/run quarterback in the county,” Edison Coach Dave White said of the Arizona-bound Modster. “They outplayed us in every facet of the game. We were humbled by the loss, but we’ll get better.”

Senior Bobby Jinkins kicked a 46-yard field goal, senior quarterback Grant Lowary (24 of 42, 217 yards) threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Shaun Colamonico, and senior Jacob Price scored on an 85-yard punt return, to account for the Chargers’ scoring. Junior linebacker Turner Maza had 12 tackles (10 solo) and one sack on defense.

Edison lost a season opener for the first time since 2005.

Buena Park entered the season ranked No. 7 in the Southwest Division and the Coyotes, 11-2 and a Southwest Division semifinalist last year, flew out of the gate last week by crushing Orange, 75-20. Senior quarterback Zach Taylor keyed the victory, throwing for 279 yards (15 of 20) and five touchdowns, and led the ground game with 141 yards and two TDs on only five carries.

A stacked offensive backfield for the Coyotes includes transfers Elijah Bynum and Jeremiah Hawkins. Bynum rushed for 60 yards and a score on two carries in the opener.

“They have some athletes on that team, some Division 1 kids, and can score a lot of points,” White said. “It’s going to be a challenge for our defense.”

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Fountain Valley (0-1) vs. Long Beach Wilson (0-1)

(7 p.m., Long Beach Wilson High)

Fountain Valley plays its second road game and its second CIF Southern Section PAC-5 Division foe to start the season when its visits Wilson.

The Barons went to Cerritos College in Norwalk for their opener last week against Servite, and suffered a 45-7 loss to the Friars (No. 10 PAC-5 Division preseason). Senior running back Trae Davis scored on a 10-yard pass from junior quarterback Chad Olberding in the second quarter to slice the Servite lead to 14-7.

“Despite the loss, I thought it was really good in a lot of ways in that it exposed several things we need to work on,” Fountain Valley Coach Ray Fenton said. “Number one, and the most important thing, is that the guys played tight and made some uncharacteristic mistakes, and you can’t do that against a high-caliber team like Servite. Second, I didn’t do a good job in keeping us loose and ready to play. That’s all on me.

“Physically, we played well. Chad [Olberding] had a really great run over 60 yards that set up our touchdown, Moe Falealii established himself as a really physical runner on offense and did a good job on defense, and I thought our junior linebacker, Blake Vasquez played one of the best games I’ve seen. He was playing side-to-side and all over the field.”

Wilson fell in its opener last week to Paramount, 34-7. The Bruins took an early lead on an interception return for a touchdown but were done in by mistakes (13 penalties) and missed scoring opportunities.

“That score does not indicate how good they are,” Fenton said of the Bruins. “They are skilled and big up front.

“Like us in our opener, they made mistakes that hurt them and had penalties that called some plays back.

I think Friday will come down to which team is able to correct the mistakes from last week.”

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Huntington Beach (1-0) vs. San Clemente (0-1)

(7 p.m., San Clemente High)

Huntington faces the first of three road tests in successive weeks when it heads to south Orange County for a meeting with the Tritons.

The Oilers ushered in the new season with a 57-14 rout of Los Angeles West Adams Prep last week. They scored in a variety of ways, too, which helped them wipe out a 7-0 deficit in the first 55 seconds of a wild, first 24 minutes of the game.

Huntington pounced on the Panthers and put away the visitors by the halftime gun.

The game went to a running clock in the second half.

“It was a pretty good way to start,” Huntington Coach Eric Lo said. “We scored a bunch of points, and our defense and special teams played really well.”

Huntington did do all that against an outmanned West Adams unit.

Other than giving up a touchdown on the second play from scrimmage, a 76-yard run by running back Shawn Prejean, it was a good way for the Oilers to start. Their star running back, senior Hunter Simmons, went over the 100-yard rushing mark on limited carries and scored via the run and pass. Quarterback Kobee Lagarde, threw four touchdown passes, his first two scoring strikes came on his first two attempts and both went to senior receiver John Davis. The Oilers defense also got into the act and scored twice on fumble recoveries in the end zone and once on a blocked punt.

All of the damage was done with still 2:15 remaining on the first-half clock.

Simmons answered Prejean’s run with a 32-yard scoring run on his second carry. On West Adam’s next possession, Huntington junior defensive end Derrick Thomas recovered a fumble at the Panthers’ 27-yard line. It set up a 27-yard touchdown pass from Lagarde to Davis. Thomas, who had an opening game he won’t forget, recovered a muffed snap in the end zone for a touchdown on the Panthers’ next possession. The Oilers recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff at the West Adams 47 and following two runs by Simmons that took the ball down to the 26, Lagarde and Davis hooked up a second time for six. Lagarde threaded a nice pass to a wide-open Davis at the four and he headed untouched to the end zone.

Before the first quarter was up, senior defensive back Phillip Pinto recovered a West Adams fumble in the end zone for a score and a 36-8 lead.

It was much of the same in the second quarter for the Oilers. Thomas came up with his third fumble recovery of the half which thwarted a West Adams march deep into Huntington territory. The Oilers turned the take away into another score when Lagarde hit Simmons out of the backfield and the all-league back turned the short pass into a 37-yard touchdown. The next Huntington score came when a punt attempt by the Panthers went off the helmet of Huntington junior receiver Jake Adams, and senior linebacker Mitchel Anderson recovered the loose ball in the back of the end zone.

The scoring spree ended when Lagarde hit 6-foot-6 senior tight end Nick Crabtree, a Boise St. commit, over the top for an 18-yard touchdown pass with 2:15 left in the half.

By halftime, Simmons had rushed for 110 yards on only seven carries, and Lagarde, who was perfect in his delivery throughout the game, was five for five for 124 yards.

“We controlled field position and we did a nice job, overall, and that was exciting to see,” Lo said. “But, we had too many penalties, and that’s something we will work on. It’s technical stuff that we need to clean up.”

San Clemente, runner-up last year to the CIF-SS Southwest Division title, opened the season last week with the No. 1 ranking in the division. The Tritons, however, dropped their opener, 34-20, at San Juan Hills.

“They are good but had a tough day last week,” Lo said. “We’re expecting a very physical ball game.”

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Brethren Christian (1-0) vs. Boron (0-1)

(7 p.m., Boron High)

Brethren Christian looks to keep the momentum going from a season-opening romp when it makes the long trek to Boron to battle the Bobcats.

BC, starting the season at No. 8 in the CIF-SS East Valley Division, crushed visiting Riverside Prep last week, 62-0. The Warriors ran at will and reached the end zone eight times through their ground game.

“[Riverside Prep] played us tough in last year’s opener (a 28-12 BC win), so I wasn’t even expecting a score like this,” BC Coach Pat McInally said. “We’ve really improved in two critical areas this year, our running game and on defense. We have four dynamic running backs, and everyone ran really well last Friday. Our defense has been working really hard and it was great to see them get a shutout.”

Junior running back Levon Lester rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns, junior tailback Jordan Leonard ran for 54 yards and three TDs, senior quarterback Bobbie Conklin’s 77 yards came on a scoring run, Conklin threw a 33-yard scoring pass to junior receiver Josh Gorrell, and junior running back Bryan Leonard ran for a score.

Boron lost its opener to Kern Valley, 28-14. Five-foot-nine junior running back and team captain, Laron Cherry, rushed for more than 1,000 yards last year and keys the Bobcats’ offense.

“They played Kern Valley really tough,” McInally said. “They’re going to be tough and we have a long drive ahead of us, on top of it.”