by Paul Teetor
It finally happened.
For the first time in this suddenly-not-so-young high school football season, Mira Costa and Redondo Union both won games on the same night. Mira Costa beat back a strong challenge from visiting Villa Park 34-23 Friday night, while Redondo rolled over Banning 35-6.
Costa started the season with three straight wins while Redondo started with 3 straight losses, including a 31-0 beatdown by Costa in the annual rivalry game.
Last week the two teams flipped the script, with the Mustangs losing to San Juan Hills while the Sea Hawks eked out a two-point win over Orange. That left Costa with a 3-1 record and Redondo with a 1-3 record.
Friday night both teams beat visitors in their last non-league game, giving hope to both teams as they get ready to start league play Friday night: Costa in the Bay League against Lawndale and Redondo in the Pioneer League against Torrance.
For Costa, the start to Friday night’s game was just about perfect. After punting on their first possession, the Mustangs scored on their next four possessions – three touchdowns and a field goal — to build a 24-0 lead.
But the game was far from over.
“At halftime we were talking to the kids about what a great history Villa Park has, and about what a tough league the Bravo League is,” Mira Costa Coach Don Morrow said. “Nobody really expected them to just go away after we took that big lead.”
Sure enough, Villa Park didn’t waste any time getting on the scoreboard in the third quarter. On the first play of the second half, Vince Lagatta hit Luvie Clark for an 80-yard touchdown pass.
On the second play of Mira Costa’s next possession, Villa Park’s Lucas Saenz stepped in front of a Liam Meeker pass and raced 20 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion was good and all of a sudden, Mira Costa’s lead was cut to single digits at 24-15.
Moving to respond quickly, Meeker – the senior quarterback who has emerged as the second-best quarterback in the Bay League behind Palos Verdes’ Ryan Rykowski — led the way. The senior star, who also had an interception on defense, went 3 for 3 on the next drive, ending with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Taylor to put Mira Costa ahead 31-15 and help the Mustangs regain control of a game that appeared to be slipping away from them.
Morrow was proud of his team’s fast start – and for fighting back when Villa Park challenged for the lead in the second half.
“I loved the way we came out to start the game,” Morrow said. “I thought that was super cool. Made a lot of tremendous plays. Like one of the guys was saying, it’s never perfect. We probably left several points on the board or on the field, but to hang in there at the end was pretty cool.”
Meeker, the team’s emotional leader, agreed with his coach’s assessment of the game.
“We came out slow offensively,” Meeker said. “They scored on the first play of the second half. We knew they were coming, but they still executed it. After that, I think we responded pretty well.”
Villa Park didn’t go away quietly. In the fourth quarter, Lagatta connected with Clark again, this time for an 11-yard touchdown. After Lagatta completed the two-point conversion, Mira Costa’s lead was 34-23. Neither team scored again, but the closeness of the final score obscured how dominant the Mustangs were for the entire first half.
Costa kicker Nico Talbott opened the scoring for the Mustangs in the first quarter with a 27-yard field goal. On the next possession, Meeker connected with Luke Leonard on a 29-yard touchdown pass, and AJ McBean capped the scoring outburst with a 33-yard touchdown run with 25 seconds left in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, the Meeker brothers hooked up with Luke Meeker hauling in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Liam Meeker for what looked like a comfortable 24-0 lead.
But it wasn’t, and the game was a dog fight right to the end.
Sea Hawks Flying Again
Redondo, fresh off its first win of the season, wasted no time in keeping that winning feeling going Friday night against Banning for a 35-6 nonleague win.
Brock Herrera sacked Banning quarterback Noa Tuvalu on the game’s third play, forcing the Pilots to punt the ball away.
After losing its star tight end Adrian Ortiz with an injured ankle on its first play from scrimmage, the rest of Redondo’s offense picked up the slack. Taking advantage of a short-field off a 17-yard punt, Redondo needed just seven plays, capped by Christian Zeno’s 12-yard touchdown run to jump out to a 7-0 lead with 5:59 to play.
Once again, Redondo stopped Banning cold. Blake Wunderli stepped in front of Tuvalu’s pass before racing 60 yards for the touchdown to make it a 14-0 game with 5:06 left in the opening quarter.
“It was a huge momentum changer. That’s what kick started it all,” Zeno said of the Sea Hawks’ early defensive plays. “We had Brock with a sack, and then Blake’s pick-six right after that. It was a big momentum change and I feel like those are the plays that win games.”
But Banning had a little fight left before the game turned completely in Redondo’s favor.
Tuvalu led a drive that began at the 34 and continued after an 8-yard screen pass to Alonzo Ruiz on fourth-and-3 from the Pilot 41. After connecting with Pharrell Daniels for a 19-yard gain, Banning found itself in another fourth down situation before Tuvalu rumbled 24 yards up the middle for a touchdown to make it 14-6 after Herrera blocked the extra point.
“I saw a pretty big gap. I saw the guard’s head down and ran through it,” Herrera said. “Those special team plays were huge. They changed the game. I did my assignment and got a lot of help from the rest of the team.”
On the first play of the second quarter, Banning defensive back Nathan Grebb intercepted Sea Hawk quarterback Cole Leinart. However, Banning was unable to capitalize. Herrera came up with the block on the punt attempt, giving the Sea Hawk offense the ball at the Pilot 24.
After Leinart and Zeno connected for a 23-yard pickup, Rocky Martinez capped the drive with a 1-yard scoring run to make it 21-6 with 7:02 left in the opening half.
“We had great blocking up front,” Martinez said. “All the credit goes to the offensive line.”
Martinez finished with 104 yards, including runs of 41 and 51. Zeno added 80 yards of offense.
Redondo padded its lead before halftime, getting a key fourth-down conversion on Lincoln Esparza’s 22-yard reception to keep the Sea Hawk drive going. Five plays later, Zeno capped the drive with his second touchdown of the night to make it 28-6 with two minutes to play in the half.
“We had to mentally lock in,” Esparza said. “We did our jobs tonight. Doing all that made our team successful.”
Leinart, who finished with 120 yards on seven of 12 passing attempts, connected with Esparza early in the fourth quarter on a 19-yard touchdown reception that gave Redondo a 35-6 lead and put the game away.
Sea Hawk Coach Keith Ellison, who took the blame for the three-game opening skid and vowed to fix his team’s problems, was relieved now that the Sea Hawks have won two straight.
“We’re slowly getting better. We started off the season as bad as you can start. But now we’re starting to get this moving in the right direction,” Ellison said. “Next week is a huge test for us, and I’m happy with how the boys performed tonight.”
Redondo will host Torrance Friday night.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
