MacArthur holds off Long Beach

MacArthur’s offense piled up nearly 200 yards on the ground and its defense forced three Long Beach turnovers, including a game-sealing interception by senior Brian Mondella in the end zone with 30 seconds left, as the Generals closed the Conference II regular season with a third straight victory, 27-20, on the road last Saturday.

Junior quarterback Kyle Acquavella rushed for 72 yards and two touchdowns, and junior Calvin Louie (58 yards) and senior Tom Cummings (56) added rushing scores to lead the way for the defending county champions, who earned the No. 4 seed and will turn around and host No. 5 Long Beach in a first-round playoff game this Friday at 7 p.m. Both teams are 5-3.

“We knew we’d be a work in progress with all the new faces, and I was hoping we’d get it together sooner than five or six weeks, but you can’t teach experience,” MacArthur head coach Bob Fehrenbach said. “It took some time, but we’re playing better and playing with more confidence.”

The Marines, who won their previous three home games, were driving for a chance to open the playoffs at home and marched from their own 34-yard line to the MacArthur 7 in the two-minute drill. But on fourth-and-6, senior quarterback Sam Brown’s heave into the end zone landed in enemy hands after some contact around the goal line resulted in no call.

Brown threw for two touchdowns, giving him 26 passing scores on the year, and ran for one.

“They made a few more plays than we did,” Long Beach head coach Scott Martin said. “We played our best in the fourth quarter. I thought we played well defensively all day.”

MacArthur’s offensive front, centered by senior Kevin Tierney (6-foot-5, 315 pounds) and anchored by senior tackle Ryan O’Shea, set the tone for the day on the game’s opening drive. The Generals went 67 yards on 14 plays, ate up 7:15 of clock, and led 7-0 on Louie’s 7-yard touchdown run.

The Marines closed within 7-6 early in the second quarter after a fumble recovery by sophomore Luca Salerno put the offense in business on the Generals’ 7-yard line. In danger of squandering the opportunity after the first three plays gained a total of one yard, Brown came through with a nifty 6-yard touchdown run on fourth down.

Long Beach, however, wouldn’t score again until the fourth quarter. MacArthur led 14-6 at halftime after Acquavella’s 1-yard touchdown run with 44 seconds left in the second quarter. The drive stayed alive when Fehrenbach reached into his bag of tricks on fourth-and-16 from the Long Beach 32 and senior Chris Moustouka hit Acquavella for a 26-yard gain on a halfback option toss.

After a scoreless third quarter, both teams scored twice in the fourth. The Marines trailed 21-6 after Acquavella’s 6-yard touchdown run but answered with a 40-yard touchdown reception by senior Shamale Dennis and junior Joe O’Donohue’s two-point conversion grab to cut the margin to 21-14 with 10:13 to go.

Cummings scored from 38 yards less than two minutes later, but Long Beach responded with senior Thomas Rutherig’s 15-yard touchdown catch with 6:24 remaining. 

“We need to move the ball better offensively,” Martin said of the playoff matchup.