Mustangs hang on
LAGUNA BEACH — The ball popped into the air, landing in the arms of Costa Mesa High sophomore nosetackle Angel Valle midway through the fourth quarter.
Valle cradled the ball at first. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I was surprised,” he said after the game. “I just thought, ‘I should run.’”
He returned it to the one-yard line before the guy who caused the running back fumble, senior linebacker Mason Mataafa, powered it in to give the Mustangs a late lead in their Orange Coast League opener at Laguna Beach on Friday night.
A sign of a good football team can be that different players step up at different times. Costa Mesa is certainly finding that to be true.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Mustangs grinded out a 14-9 win in the league opener at Laguna Beach High.
“I’m just glad to be back,” said Mataafa, who returned from a three-week absence caused by a shoulder injury. “I was waiting for this game. I felt like we could have done better, but we’ll do way better next week.”
Next week is the Battle for the Bell game against rival Estancia. The Mustangs (5-1, 1-0 in league) will come into that game ahead of the Eagles in league. Defending champion Estancia fell to Calvary Chapel, 23-21, on Friday night in another league opener.
Costa Mesa is ranked No. 9 in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division, a spot ahead of Calvary Chapel. The Mustangs avoided an upset loss to the Breakers (2-4, 0-1).
It looked like Laguna could pull it off after taking its first lead of the game in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Jack Simon, one of just four seniors on the team, scored on a two-yard keeper with 8:02 left. The conversion pass failed, but the Breakers had a 9-8 lead.
Costa Mesa’s next possession ended on its fourth turnover of the game. The first three were lost fumbles. This time, Laguna’s Adam Armstrong intercepted a pass downfield and returned it to his own 37-yard line with about five minutes left.
The Breakers weren’t able to run the clock out. Mataafa made sure of it, bursting up the middle to cause the fumble, which Valle collected and nearly ran to the goal line. The change in momentum was huge for Mesa. After Mataafa’s touchdown run, the conversion keeper attempt failed, but the Mustangs grabbed a 14-9 lead with 4:25 left.
“It was all on my coaches,” Mataafa said. “They all got me pumped up in the locker room. They just told me to fill my gaps, and I did my job.”
Laguna Beach had one last shot, moving it to near midfield. A Costa Mesa personal foul penalty on fourth down, ruled to be a late hit on the quarterback, kept the Breakers’ drive alive. But a holding penalty then moved them back.
On third-and-20, Laguna lined up three receivers to the right and sent Ryan Blaser also in motion to the right. Blaser took the handoff and looked ready to pass, but Costa Mesa’s Helper Kisino blew up the trick play, tackling Blaser for a 12-yard loss at the Laguna 35-yard line.
On fourth-and-32 with 58 seconds left, Blaser nearly caught Simon’s deep pass near the sideline. He got his hands on it but couldn’t hold on, sort of like how the Breakers couldn’t quite hold on to the lead.
Mesa junior Elijah Collado also had a key interception in the end zone in the third quarter, preserving the Mustangs’ 8-3 lead at the time.
Jonathan Brucales had 19 carries for 93 yards and a touchdown for Costa Mesa, which also got 40 yards rushing from quarterback Cameron Curet and 31 from Mataafa. The Mustangs got Josh Snipes (wrist) back from injury but sophomore quarterback Ben Swanson (arm) missed his second straight game.
All in all, it was a gutsy road win for the Mustangs, who improved to 5-0 on the road this season.
“It’s very big,” Costa Mesa Coach Glen Fisher said. “These guys suffered through some ugly. They were 2-8 last year. Whenever you go to a new program, the hardest thing to do is convince them that they can win, and they believe they can win. More importantly, they believe that they’re never out of a game.”
Mataafa, in his first game back in the lineup, proved that the Mustangs weren’t out of it.
“Yes, sir,” he said when asked if the Mustangs could have played better, despite earning the win. “You’re going to see a lot of improvement.”
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Costa Mesa 14, Laguna Beach 9
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CM 0 – 8 – 0 – 6 — 14
LB 0 – 3 – 0 – 6 — 9
SECOND QUARTER
CM – Brucales 13 run (Mataafa run), 3:26.
LB – Cracknell 22 FG, 0:18.
FOURTH QUARTER
LB – Simon 2 run (pass failed), 8:02.
CM – Mataafa 1 run (run failed), 4:25.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
CM – Brucales, 19-93, 1 TD; Curet, 12-40; Mataafa, 6-31, 1 TD.
LB – Cracknell, 12-66.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
CM – Curet, 1-8-1, 5.
LB – Simon, 9-18-1, 74.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
CM – Brucales, 1-5.
LB – Cracknell, 5-46.
