FULLERTON — The Fullerton football team used a combination of a stingy defense and explosive plays to earn a 21-0 victory over Marina on Friday night at Fullerton High.
The Indians (6-2, 2-1) move into a second-place tie with Sunny Hills (6-2, 2-1), which they will face next week.
After a winless 0-10 season last year, Fullerton is possibly one victory away from securing a CIF-SS playoff berth.
“When we started this thing, our goal was not to rebuild over the course of three or four years,” Indians coach Pete Karavedas said. “It was to go from an 0-10 season to the playoffs in year one. And we’re one game away from that right now.”
Big plays were on full display for the Indians offense in the first half as they scored three touchdowns, all of which were over 40 yards.
Luke Viramontes scored on a 75-yard pass from Sergio Andrade on the opening drive, Caden Wise made it 14-0 on a 65-yard run and Cyrus Aviles added a 43-yard run on fourth-and-1.
On defense Wise also collected a second-quarter interception and Aviles came up with a fumble recovery in the third quarter as the Indians got their third shutout of the season.
“When I came to Fullerton, I knew that Fullerton always took a lot of pride in being physical and took a lot of pride in defense,” Karavedas said. “Having guys like (defensive coaches) Ed De Avila, Jesse Smith and Jonoven Smith really has kept that alive.”
The Vikings (5-3, 1-2) had their best opportunity to get on the scoreboard late in the third quarter. They got to the Fullerton 11 but the drive ended when Francis Saporito overthrew his intended receiver, Gunnar Mickelson, in the end zone on fourth down.
“Obviously we had our chances, we just have to capitalize.” Marina coach Charlie TeGantvoort said. “It’s just, you know, we have bad plays at the worst possible times, you know, and bad penalties at the worst possible times. And that’s just focus. We all need to just recommit to focusing, recommit to playing hard and just recommit to being tough.”
Marina was shut out for the first time since a 49-0 loss to Garden Grove in 2022.
Karavedas was asked if he will feel any emotion facing his old school Sunny Hills, a program he won a CIF-SS title with in 2019.
“I didn’t coach any of those kids, so it’s not emotional in that regard,” he said. “For me, I’m just, I’m emotional about our kids getting a chance to potentially clinch to get into the playoffs. It doesn’t matter who the team is, it’s let’s win on Thursday to punch our ticket to the playoffs.”
