Mar Vista High School football coach Tyler Arciaga called last Friday’s non-league game against visiting Gabrielino a “tale of two halves.”
“The first half we were able to execute the offense and the defense did a nice job of bending without breaking,” the MVHS coach said. “The second half, we only ran 14 offensive plays for a total of 30 yards and two turnovers. Our defense played good enough to keep us ahead and our special teams came through with a kick return.”
The end result was a 28-18 win and a 3-1 season start for the youth-laden Mariners.
“Our bye week comes at a good time as we — as a coaching staff and as a team — need to figure out how to put two halves together,” Arciaga explained. “Against Valley Center and Clairemont, we played only one good half of football, so this is something that has to be addressed.
“We play Santana next (on Oct. 3 in another non-league encounter), then we start getting into our Metro Conference games, and finishing up with our league games. Playing one-half of football will not get the job done.
“Despite this, our kids have been coachable and have a desire to get better. We look to put our bye week to good use and try to put a full game together against Santana in Week 6.”
The first half against the visitors from San Gabriel produced a 21-6 MVHS lead. Khalil Spruill scored on a 59-yard touchdown run, quarterback Ben Munoz tossed a 28-yard scoring pass to Josh Cooper and Spruill ran the ball in from three yards out to hike the hosts to a 21-0 edge.
After Gabrielino closed the first half with a touchdown, the Mariners got some much-needed breathing room back when Cooper returned the second-half kick-off 85 yards for a touchdown.
28-6 Mar Vista.
The visitors closed out the game with two touchdowns – the first on a two-yard run by Elijah Peters and the second on a 20-yard scoring pass from Peters to Rikiya Satoh.
Spruill, a sophomore, rushed for a season-best 189 yards on eight attempts to increase his 2014 total to 428 yards on 44 carries. He leads the team in scoring with six touchdowns.
