GARDEN GROVE – It wasn’t pretty but Pacifica’s football team used a punishing ground game and an equally dominating defense to earn a 13-7 victory over Liberty on Friday in the CIF Southern Section Division 10 quarterfinals.
The Mariners (8-3), who are going to the semifinals for the second year in a row, ran for 307 yards and abandoned the pass on a rainy night at Bolsa Grande High.
Pacifica will face Hillcrest of Riverside (7-6) next week in the semifinals.
Ma’Kai Brown ran for 134 yards and scored both Pacifica touchdowns, and Mike Lee went for 79 yards on four carries.
“It’s great,” said Pacifica quarterback James Anena. “It’s just a testament to our team’s hard work and our program and our coaching staff. The coaches do a great job preparing us. It’s not easy but it’s good when you come out and your coach has a good game plan.”
The Mariners took the opening kickoff and pounded their way down the field. Their 10-play, 70-yard drive consumed, which ended on Brown’s sparkling 6-yard touchdown, was all on the ground.
“It’s hard to throw the ball in a rain game like this, so we decided to just run the ball and stuck with it,” Anema said.
Anema has thrown for nearly 2,300 yards this season, but didn’t throw his first pass until the first play of the second quarter.
“We’ve got a great running back room,” Anema said. “Our O-line makes it easy; they play really hard and create some good gaps, and we’ve got two dogs in the backfield in Mike Lee and Ma’Kai.”
When Brown scored his second TD, a 17-yard run with 4:12 left in the first half, Liberty was starting to look outclassed. The Bison had 49 yards of total offense and two first downs, but they rallied when Devin Dillard – averaging 98 passing yards per game – connected with Damian Rowell for 14-yard scoring pass as the clock expired in the second quarter.
Marina put its foot down after that.
Michael McGuigan recovered a Liberty fumble at the Marina 9 after a 61-yard completion to Rowell, then Jordan Morales intercepted a Dillard pass at the Marina 2.
“Our defense is great,” Anema said. “With Tyler (Alvarado) and Cole (Chapman) leading it, they’re dominant, they’re aggressive, and they fly around.”
The Bison had 200 yards of total offense, with nearly one-third being the long completion which ended in a fumble.
Now Pacifica will try to take the next step which eluded it last season, which ended with 17-14 loss to St. Anthony in the semifinals.
“We have a lot of different guys, but I think we have the same mentality,” Anema said. “We’re going to run the ball, we’re going to play good defense, and we’re going to play tough.”
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