Long Beach tops Kennedy, 34-32

Kennedy’s Joey Karo did everything in his power to steal the spotlight from Long Beach on Friday night. He piled up 200 yards rushing and four touchdowns and brought back a kickoff 90 yards for a score, but the Marines found a way to stop him once.

Karo was tackled behind the line of scrimmage on a two-point conversion attempt with 1:23 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Marines held on for a thrilling 34-32 Conference II victory on their new turf field before a standing-room-only crowd of 1,700 at Long Beach Middle School.

“It was an unbelievable game,” Long Beach coach Scott Martin said. “Karo is a tremendous player. We just sent everyone at him on the conversion. We didn’t want to give him any time to make a move.”

Hunter O’Neal was the first defender to get to Karo, who capped a nine-play 80-yard drive into the wind with a 12-yard touchdown run. A pair of missed extra-points in the second half forced the Cougars to go for two.

“Our guys gave everything they had,” Kennedy coach Nick Martone said. “We scored four times in the second half, but we dug an early hole and didn’t give ourselves any wiggle room defensively.”

The Marines were led by Damon Whitfield, who rushed for 158 yards and three touchdowns, including the tiebreaking score from seven yards out with 9:41 left. “We’ve been looking forward to playing on this field,” he said. “It was a tough game. We didn’t come out strong in the second half, but we found a way to grind it out.”

Karo did most of his damage on direct snaps as the Cougars unleashed the “Wildcat” offense. He had three runs of at least 20 yards, including a 56-yard scamper in the fourth quarter that set up his 4-yard touchdown run to make it 27-26 with less than six minutes to go.

“The Wildcat has been in our system, but this is the first game we used it,” Martone said. “It was pretty successful against a good football team.”

With the wind in their favor, the Marines (2-1) took to the air on their next drive. Sam Pereless made a nifty catch along the sideline at the Kennedy 27, and a pass interference call on the next series moved the ball inside the red zone. Whitfield’s 7-yard touchdown run and Nick McCarthy’s extra point made it 34-26 with 3:56 left.

“The wind is always a factor here,” Martin said. “You really can’t throw when you’re going against it.”

Long Beach opened the scoring on its first-ever possession on the turf. With junior quarterback Tom Rowley at the controls, the offense drove 57 yards on four plays and hit paydirt when Whitfield followed the block of center Michael Rourke into the end zone from two yards out. Rowley then capped an 11-play, 85-yard drive in the second quarter with a 1-yard touchdown plunge for a 13-0 lead.

Karo got the Cougars (1-2) on the board by going the distance on the ensuing kickoff, but Long Beach answered with James Forkin’s 18-yard touchdown run on a reverse and held its first halftime lead of the season at 20-7. 

                        1          2          3          4          F

Kennedy          0          7          13        12        32

Long Beach      7          13        0          14        34