Trojans blank Eagles

For the second time in as many days, Jeremy Osso returned to the campus of his alma mater Estancia High.

Osso, a Costa Mesa resident and the former Costa Mesa High football coach, showed up Thursday afternoon to the Eagles’ freshman football game against University. He was there to support his freshman daughter Nessa, who’s a cheerleader at Estancia, but it put him in a bit of an awkward position as the defensive coordinator at University.

“It felt really weird,” he said. “I didn’t sit on the Uni side, I sat on the Estancia side because I’m supporting my daughter. It is what it is. [Estancia] is a great community school and I’m happy my girls go here.”

On Friday night, Osso again came back to Jim Scott Stadium for the varsity football game. This time, he was there to coach in his role of defensive coordinator.

Boy, did his defense show up too.

University blanked Estancia in the nonleague game, 28-0, to improve to 4-0 for the first time in seven years.

Trojans Coach Mark Cunningham knew that his team couldn’t overlook Estancia (1-3), which spoiled University’s 3-0 start last year with a dominant win. This year, University was the one that controlled the action.

“Last year, to be honest with you, we looked past Estancia and got our butt handed to us,” Cunningham said. “That was all we talked about this week.”

Estancia certainly had chances to score on Friday. Three times in the game, the Eagles got the ball into the red zone. Two of those came in the second quarter, but each drive stalled.

The first time, Estancia was gifted good field position after sophomore lineman Jay Enciso recovered a fumble by the running back at the Trojans’ 34-yard line. Estancia got to the 20 on an 11-yard run by senior running back Tyler Chacon, then to the 10 on a 10-yard pass from Connor Brown to Tyler Ross.

But the drive stalled there, and a 29-yard field goal was no good.

Later in the quarter, Estancia opened up the passing game in an 11-play drive, getting the ball to the University 15-yard line on a nice play by Ross. Again, the Eagles couldn’t punch it in. On fourth down, Brown had plenty of time and rolled right, searching for a receiver. But a pass to Ross in the end zone was well defended by Matt Abellaneda, and the Eagles turned it over on downs with 1:13 left in the half.

Abellaneda also did plenty of damage on offense for Uni, with two touchdown runs in the first half.

“We’re making a lot of mistakes that are costing us football games,” said Estancia Coach Mike Bargas, whose team was shut out for the first time since a 35-0 loss to Loara that opened the 2013 season. “We made mistakes last week against Irvine, and today we made about four or five fatal mistakes. We just got outplayed tonight, too, by Uni. We’ve had a pretty challenging preseason, and I don’t think our guys came out as revved up as they did.

“We had opportunities. We’re just not playing Estancia Eagle football right now. We’ve just got to figure it out and keep coaching them up. We’re running out of time before league.”

Estancia struggled to get the running game going without junior Jordan Balcazar, who separated his shoulder in last week’s loss at Irvine. The Eagles had just 77 rushing yards on 28 attempts. In last year’s win over the Trojans, the Eagles had 204 rushing yards.

“It doesn’t help them that Jordan’s not playing, but we focused on that,” Osso said. “[Brown] has a great arm and is an incredible football player, but we felt that Estancia’s M.O. is to set up the pass by running. So we made sure we focused on the run. Plus, I think we’re a year stronger too. It all goes back to the offseason.”

Estancia was down 14-0 at halftime, and fell further behind when University quarterback Neil Boudreau converted a fourth-and-12 situation midway through the third quarter, firing a 31-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Michael Jung.

The Eagles’ third and final time in the red zone came late in the third quarter, when Brown’s 15-yard quarterback keeper — Estancia’s longest run of the night — set the Eagles up with first-and-goal at the University 10-yard line. But, on third-and-goal from the nine, Brown’s pass into the end zone was intercepted by Darrius Outland on the final play of the third quarter.

“By and large, they played really, really well,” Cunningham said of his players. “That was just a lot of desire on their part to not let [Estancia] score, and it showed, it really showed. They were battling.”

University added its final touchdown when Max Haughey scored on a one-yard run with 2:15 remaining in the game.

Estancia closes out its nonleague schedule Thursday at home against Ocean View. The Eagles, the defending Orange Coast League champions, open league on Oct. 9 against Calvary Chapel.

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University 28, Estancia 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Uni 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 — 28

Est 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0

FIRST QUARTER

Uni – Abellaneda 4 run (Loveland kick), 3:39.

SECOND QUARTER

Uni – Abellaneda 18 run (Loveland kick), 5:23.

THIRD QUARTER

Uni – Jung 31 pass from Boudreau (Loveland kick), 6:50.

FOURTH QUARTER

Uni – Haughey 1 run (Loveland kick), 2:15.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

Uni – Winder, 13-58; Abellaneda, 6-42, 2 TDs.

Est – Chacon, 22-54.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

Uni – Boudreau, 8-10-1, 83, 1 TD.

Est – Brown, 11-23-1, 105.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

Uni – Jung, 3-51, 1 TD.

Est – Ross, 5-44.