There is no historic football rivalry between St. Anthony and Marina High School. The teams haven’t played since 2016–a 48-21 Saints win that year–and have only met twice since 2004. But when the teams square off tonight at 7 p.m. in Huntington Beach, there will be plenty of history on the opposing sidelines.
St. Anthony head coach Raul Lara will be going head-to-head with Marina head coach Jeff Turley, who was Lara’s longtime defensive coordinator back at Long Beach Poly. With both coaches being defensive-minded, one might expect to see a low-scoring affair, but the St. Anthony offense has been hitting its stride in recent weeks.
The Saints (2-3) are on a modest two-game winning streak over Wilson and St. Pius X – St. Matthias Academy, scoring 43 points in their most recent win. The young Saints got off to a slow start against some tough competition, but Lara seems to have things headed in the right direction behind running back Sone Aupiu, who had a monster game against Pius.
Meanwhile, Marina (1-4) is coming off a 45-13 loss to crosstown rivals Huntington Beach on the road last week. The Vikings have been tougher at home this season, picking up their lone win (40-17) over Fountain Valley a week after a close 30-28 home loss against Elsinore. Now in his eighth season in charge, Turley has built a solid program at Marina, going 17-4 combined the previous two seasons. Now members of the Big 4 League, the Vikings haven’t lost a league game since 2018.
This is the final non-league game for St. Anthony before Del Rey League play starts, so Lara and company will look to keep that winning streak going, and get a win over an old friend.
