WESTMINSTER — Both Aliso Niguel and host Marina had difficulty putting together sustained drives in the teams’ nonleague football game Thursday at Westminster High School.

In some cases, drives stalled because of penalties, but the low score can mostly be attributed to the play of both defenses.

The Wolverines only needed two first-half scoring drives to come away with the 14-7 victory in a contest in which no points were scored in the second half.

“There were some penalties and drives just kind of fizzled out,” Wolverines coach Michael Calahan said. “It could be a lot of things. It could be really good defenses. He (Vikings coach Charlie TeGantvoort) had answers for everything and vice versa. So, it was the ultimate chess match out there which makes it fun for us.”

Of the first-half drives for the Wolverines (4-1), two resulted in scores, two ended with fourth-down-stops and two resulted in turnovers.

The Wolverines punted on all four second half-drives.

Marina (2-4) scored on one drive in the first half. Another drive ended with a turnover and four drives resulted in punts.

The second-half drives played out nearly the same for both teams as in the first half, except with no points.

In the fourth quarter, Marina faced a fourth-and-5 from the Wolverines 37 when Aliso Niguel linebacker Kavan Kynor made a huge tackle for no gain.

“That was a big tackle,” Calahan said.

With 1 minute, 45 seconds left in the games, the Vikings started from their own 20 with no timeouts but wound up turning the ball over on downs, allowing the Wolverines to run out the clock.

“Coming off the bye week, we had a lot of time to focus on studying their plays and their formations and just watching a lot of film,” Aliso Niguel linebacker Cameron Levine said. “I feel like we really dissected everything they were doing. We knew where their guys were. We knew what they were doing before it was going to happen. Our guys played great. Everyone was running to the ball. Everyone was playing physical.”

Aliso Niguel scored on its first drive on a 9-yard touchdown run from Luke Jones, the team leader in rushing and touchdowns.

Aliso Niguel running back Luke Jones, left, and quarterback Hunter Najm each had a rushing touchdown in the Wolverines’ 14-7 victory over Marina on Thursday, Sept. 21 (Photo by Lou Ponsi)

Jones’ score capped a 70-yard drive, with quarterback Hunter Najm completing passes of 23 yards to Finley Torrico and 29 yards to Dylan Kissen.

The Vikings tied the score in the second quarter on Garrett Hunnicutts’ 31-yard scoring pass to Ty Green.

The touchdown came off a successful fake punt three plays earlier with Green, who is also the punter, taking the snap and throwing a 13-yard completion to Shane Cassidy.

Najm’s 3-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter gave the Wolverines a 14-7 lead.

Jones helped set up the score with runs of 26, 22 and 8 yards on the 58-yard drive.

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