Brea Olinda football starts out with a strong message in win over Marina

WESTMINSTER — Brea Olinda is a team with unfinished business.

After a tough overtime loss in the CIF-SS football finals last season, the Wildcats are motivated for a different ending this year.

Brea scored a pair of special teams touchdowns — one from a blocked punt and the other on a kickoff return — and cruised to a 35-14 win over Marina on Friday night at Westminster High.

“Whenever you score on special teams, it’s going to be a good night,” Brea Olinda coach Justin Villasenor said. “I just love the way that the kids played as a team. We played physical and that’s kind of our brand of football that we want to play every week.”

The physical play began on the Wildcats’ third drive and the catalyst was running back Nick Davis. The senior carried the ball three times for 53 yards, including an 18-yard run to give them a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Josef Morris made it 14-0 after blocking a Marina punt, and scooping up the loose ball, which took a perfect bounce into Morris’ hands, before returning it 40 yards for a score.

Brea Olinda quarterback Gavyn Nicholson completed only one pass but he made it count, as his short pass to Ryan Chang was converted into a 69-yard TD that made it 21-0 with 1:10 left in the first half.

The Vikings finally got on the scoreboard thanks to an 11-yard run by Ben Ramos to make it 21-7 with 8:52 left in the third quarter.

But Brea’s special teams unit came up with another pivotal play in the second half as Cole Pfeiffer returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown behind a convoy of blockers near the sideline and a 28-7 advantage.

Marina coach Charlie TeGantvoort admitted that was a tough sequence for his team to overcome.

“We did good and bad, and it looked like a team starting a bunch of guys for the first time on varsity right?” TeGantvoort said. “And they look like a team that finished runner-up in CIF. They just have that experience and that’s the experience that we need to get going into the league.”

Vikings QB Maverick Coverick, a transfer from Huntington Beach, passed for 189 yards and a TD in his first varsity start.

Coverick also threw a pair of interceptions. Despite the miscues, TeGantvoort believes in his young quarterback.

“He’s a great leader, works hard and he’s going to be a great Viking quarterback, just like Francis Saporito and Garrett Hunnicutt,” the coach said. “He’s the next one. You know, it’s just his first start. He’s going to get a lot better and you can see the potential.”

Gavyn Nicholson added another score in the third quarter on an 8-yard run before exiting the game.

Justin Villasenor’s message to his team was to continue to work hard for an opportunity to get back to a CIF championship game.

“So we want to make a statement that, you know, this is where we belong,” he said. “I mean, we still got a lot of work to do to get there, but, you know, we’re proud of where we are and where we come from and we want to continue that.

“The kids are hungry, and we’ll take it game by game, but that’s kind of just our mindset is to make a statement tonight, and to just keep working.”