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Football: Mesa can’t keep up with Katella

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ANAHEIM — The Costa Mesa High football team hit the road for the first time this season on Thursday. The Mustangs won’t have to play away from Jim Scott Stadium again until the eighth game of the year.

For Costa Mesa’s sake, hopefully it won’t have to wait that long to pick up its first victory.

The Mustangs are winless in their first three games, losing to Katella, 34-6, at Glover Stadium. The 0-3 start is Costa Mesa’s first in four years.

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Not much went right for the Mustangs all evening. Their second play on offense resulted in a Katella touchdown. The turnover was the first of three in the first half for Costa Mesa. Two fumbles led to a 14-0 Katella lead.

“We’re still doing some foolish things,” Costa Mesa Coach Wally Grant said. “We’re learning, and each week, believe it or not, we are getting better. That’s all I ask from these guys in the preseason.”

The Mustangs went into the nonleague game banged up. Three key starters were out, tackle Austin Sheffner (concussion), guard Jose Granados (hip) and safety Jamil Douglas (back).

Costa Mesa hurt itself even more when it turned the ball over 124 seconds into the game. The Knights returned a fumble 34 yards for a score, coming after linebacker Jonathan Sanchez stripped the ball from running back Mason Mataafa. Defensive end Alejandro Regalado picked up the ball and raced into the end zone.

When it appeared the Mustangs might have recovered a fumble on defense in the opening quarter, it didn’t hold up. The referee pointed in the wrong direction. Grant, in disbelief, walked onto the field for an explanation.

“They changed their mind,” Grant said of the referees, who ruled that the runner was down before he fumbled with 2:53 left in the first quarter. “That’s a momentum changer.”

Two minutes later, the Knights (1-1) regained the momentum. They came up with another defensive fumble.

Quarterback Sammy Swanson lost the ball, and lineman John Faitasia jumped on top of it inside Costa Mesa’s 20-yard line. The Knights ran Jameyson Mowdy four straight times, the last one went for a five-yard touchdown to put Katella up, 14-0.

Katella added a third touchdown four minutes into the second quarter. Joseph Nguyen rushed from five yards out and the Knights built a 21-0 lead.

At halftime, Costa Mesa had little to show, zero passing yards and 63 rushing yards. Almost half of the yards came on Cameron Curet’s 32-yard run in the second quarter. Curet, who rushed 12 times for 77 yards, enabled the Mustangs to cross midfield for the second time in the first half. They moved inside Katella’s five-yard line, before turning the ball over on downs on the three.

The Mustangs had converted their first three fourth-down attempts. They went for it on fourth down a fifth time with 4:49 left in the third quarter, failing to gain four yards to move the chains.

On the next play, Katella got 18 times that amount. Mowdy ripped a 72-yard touchdown run, giving him 150 yards on 11 carries. It ended his night, and the night for Costa Mesa, which dropped its fourth straight contest to Katella. The previous setback came last year in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs.

The postseason seems out of the picture with the Mustangs’ slow start to the year. They are figuring out how to run the run-heavy offense. Returning home can only help. Costa Mesa plays host to Los Amigos next week, marking the first of four consecutive games at Jim Scott Stadium.

“We run four plays, and I don’t care if we’re at home or if we’re in Fairbanks, Alaska, you know, the kids are going to learn that those four plays work,” said Grant, whose team on the final play of the game managed to avoid its first shutout in two years. “That last [counter] play [that resulted in an 18-yard touchdown run by Darmonta Davis], I didn’t call it. The kids called that last play. They’re starting to understand when we need to run a changeup off our base play.”

What can change things up for the Mustangs is a victory.

Katella 34, Costa Mesa 6

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Costa Mesa 0 – 0 – 0 – 6 — 6

Katella 7 – 14 – 7 – 6 — 34

FIRST QUARTER

K – Regalado 34 fumble return (Vasquez kick), 9:56.

SECOND QUARTER

K – Mowdy 5 run (Vasquez kick), 11:37.

K – Nguyen 5 run (Vasquez kick), 8:07.

THIRD QUARTER

K – Mowdy 72 run (Vasquez kick), 4:34.

FOURTH QUARTER

K – Marquez 1 run (kick blocked), 3:11.

CM – Davis 18 run (no kick), :00.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

CM – Curet, 12-77.

K – Mowdy, 11-150, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

CM – Swanson, 0-4-0, 0.

K – Armenta, 2-10-1, 31.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

CM – None.

K – Faitasia, 1-21.

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