Football: Costa Mesa wins, 22-14

Richard Dunn

LAGUNA BEACH - With Costa Mesa High’s football team struggling with

its emotions the past few weeks, perhaps the perfect remedy is coming

next week in crosstown rival Estancia.

“I’ve been waiting for Week 8 for six months,” Costa Mesa Coach Dave

Perkins said, following his team’s 22-14 Pacific Coast League victory

over host Laguna Beach Friday night.

The Mustangs (5-2, 1-1 in PCL), who dominated the statistical

scoreboard against the Artists (5-2, 0-2), pulled out a nail-biter in the

fourth quarter as they stretched their winning streak to 12 straight

against Laguna Beach.

“I really did (think we’d end the streak this year),” Laguna Beach

Coach Dave Holland said.

Costa Mesa’s Keola Asuega, who carried 17 times for 89 yards and two

touchdowns, scored on a 1-yard run with 7:15 left in the game for the

go-ahead score, then the Mustangs added a two-point conversion by

accident.

On a bad snap with Bryce Sheridan lined up to kick the extra point,

holder A.J. Perkins scrambled into the end zone to give Costa Mesa its

margin of victory.

“We didn’t mean to go for two,” Dave Perkins said. “But we actually

practice that bad snap and we executed it. It was a huge play, because it

put a lot of pressure on them.”

On Laguna Beach’s ensuing possession, free safety Nick Cabico tackled

Artist tailback Donelle Darling for a 1-yard loss on fourth down, ending

the Laguna threat and Costa Mesa ran out the final 4:48.

“Our defense played a great game, except for that one long run (a

54-yard touchdown by Darling in the third quarter),” Perkins said. “(The

Artists) are a good football team. That’s the most points they’ve given

up this year. We moved the football; we just killed ourselves with

penalties (18 for 128 yards).”

Costa Mesa enjoyed a large time of possession advantage in the first

half (17:43-6:17), but the game was tied at the intermission, 7-7, for

Laguna’s homecoming.

The Artists, who averaged giving up only 10.2 points a game before

kickoff, turned the ball over on the opening series of the second half,

their third turnover, when Mesa’s Doug Amburgey recovered a fumble.

Starting from the Laguna 42, Costa Mesa scored three plays later on a

35-yard touchdown run by Asuega, thanks to a big hole opened up by left

guard Andrew Carich.

Laguna Beach, however, responded with a big play, when Darling found a

hole and carried for a 54-yard touchdown, after getting bounced at the

line of scrimmage.

Laguna Beach scored in the first quarter on Darling’s 6-yard run, a

series keyed by a personal foul on Costa Mesa that gave Laguna Beach an

automatic first down at the 8-yard line.

Costa Mesa tied the game in the second quarter, 7-7, on Cabico’s

5-yard touchdown run with 7:53 left, capping a drive that lasted 5:45.

The big play in the series was a 40-yard pass from A.J. Perkins to

Cabico, who caught the ball at the Laguna 32 and ran to the 7-yard line.

Costa Mesa’s winning drive in the fourth quarter started at the

Mustangs’ 48, then six straight running plays brought the offense to the

Laguna 20. After an incomplete pass, Cabico gained 5 yards and the

Artists were called for a face mask, allowing the Mustangs to set up shop

at the 10-yard line. Three plays later, Asuega reached paydirt and Mesa’s

defense made it stand up.

“It was a really good football game and the kids really hung in

there,” Perkins said.