by Paul Teetor
The Mira Costa football team traveled to highly ranked La Habra Friday night and escaped with a down-to-the wire, 35-33 victory that pushed their record to 3-0 on the still-young season and kept alive its hopes for a CIF title this fall.
Costa knew it would be facing its toughest test yet. La Habra was undefeated at 3-0 and ranked No.13 in Orange County.
The game lived up to its hype, coming down to the final seconds. La Habra scored a touchdown with 23 seconds left to pull within 35-33. Faced with no other option – a point after kick for one point would do them no good with so little time left — they went for the 2-point conversion in hopes of tying the game. But their pass was intercepted and the Mustangs came away with a hard-earned victory.
After the Mustangs took a 35-27 lead on a 5-yard touchdown run by Luke Meeker, the Highlanders took over on the ensuing drive from the La Habra 35 with three-minutes, 11 seconds remaining.
A 16-yard run from Kevika Mata’Utia-Martinez gave the Highlanders a first-and-goal from the 1 and quarterback D.J. Mitchell scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run on the next play to get La Habra to within 2.
But Mitchell’s pass on the 2-point conversion attempt was intercepted by Costa to preserve the win.
It was a fittingly dramatic ending to a dramatic game with more twists and turns than a Yeastie Boys bagel.
La Habra struck first with a touchdown early in the first quarter. But they missed the extra point kick – a miss that would affect the rest of the game – and came out of it with a 6-0 lead instead of 7-0.
Costa’s star quarterback Liam Meeker answered with a 60-yard run from scrimmage, and the successful point after kick made it 7-6 Mustangs.
Kiyol Hall followed with a 10-yard run to push the Costa lead to 14-6 as the first quarter ended. But the Highlanders quickly answered with another touchdown that cut the lead to 14-13 early in the second quarter.
Liam Meeker, the senior quarterback who has emerged as the leader of this Mustang team, did it again with an 11-yard run to pump the lead back up to 21-13 with two minutes to go in the half. That’s when La Habra successfully executed a play usually only seen in college and the pros.
With eight seconds left and no timeouts, the Highlanders faced first-and-goal from the 2-yard line. Mitchell rolled out to his right, broke one tackle, then another tackle and finally he lobbed a pass to Aaron Castro who managed to drag his toes to stay inbounds along the right sideline in the endzone.
That made it 21-20 Costa at halftime. The missed extra point on La Habra’s first TD continued to loom large as the teams went to their locker rooms to rest and re-set.
In the opening minutes of the third quarter La Habra grabbed the momentum back and took a 27-21 lead on a long run.
Again, Meeker had the answer, this time on a 40-yard touchdown pass to his brother, Luke Meeker. The extra point made it 28-27 Costa. The La Habra fans knew now that their undefeated team was in a real dog fight to preserve that unbeaten status.
Costa moved to put the Highlanders away with a 6-yard touchdown dash by Kingston Davies, and the successful point after kick made it 35-27 Costa with just over three minutes left. La Habra could not make up the eight-point gap and lost 35-33.
After the game La Habra coach Frank Mazzotta paid tribute to Costa coach Don Morrow and his team.
“They’re always well coached,” Mazzotta said. “They’re always prepared. And they’ve got really good players. They are a big physical team.”
The victory not only pushed the Mustangs to 3-0 for the season, but it at least partially avenged their 27-24 defeat against the Highlanders in the opening round of the 2024 CIF SS Division 3 playoffs.
“We were really honored to come down here and wanted to give a good account of ourselves,” Morrow said. “Things kind of went south for a little bit in that third period, and then I was so proud of the way the boys hung in there and played the fourth quarter.”
Meanwhile the Redondo football team traveled to Huntington Beach and suffered a heart-breaking 19-17 loss that dropped the Sea Hawks record to 0-3 and only deepened the shock and confusion by Sea Hawks coaches and fans who were expecting a big comeback after last week’s Sea Hawk 31-0 beatdown by Mira Costa.
Redondo will host Orange Friday night, while Costa will host San Juan Hills.
Sharapova exits MB, Luka takes her place
It’s a bowling alley, not a tennis court.
The truth was finally revealed this week: the huge house in the Manhattan Beach hill section that was custom built for Maria Sharapova a decade ago has a sporting room in the basement alright – but it’s a two-lane bowling alley, not an indoor tennis court, as had long been rumored among the MB tennis community.
That juicy detail came to light when news leaked this week that Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion who used to be the leading money maker among female pro athletes, had sold her Japanese-style house to Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers for a cool $25 million.
That means Sharapova more than doubled her $12 million investment in the house – not a bad return.
The modern three-story house features five bedrooms, a bowling alley and a great room that opens to the pool’s edge.
Doncic, the 26-year-old Slovenian superstar who was inexplicably traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Lakers for Anthony Davis last winter, signed a three-year, $165 million extension with the Lakers in mid-August. So celebrate Lakers fans: Doncic is apparently planning to stay here for the long haul and now has his own MB crib.
Custom built in 2015, the house sits on just under a quarter-acre lot in the Hill Section, which is known for its large lots and spectacular ocean views.
The house is close to the area where former Rams quarterback Jared Goff is building build a mega-estate across two lots he purchased separately.
Goff, who now plays for the Detroit Lions, paid $10.5 million in May 2023 for a French country-style mansion. The house, originally built in 1987 and later remodeled, was formerly owned by Danny Zuker, a writer and producer for “Modern Family.” In November 2023, he acquired the neighbor’s house, built in 1952 and later remodeled, for $8.575 million.
Records show Sharapova, 38, bought her property in August 2012 for $4.1 million.
Trees surround the house, and an entry gate conceals a Japanese-style courtyard with a fountain. Beyond the front door is the double-height foyer. The minimalist space features a soaring glass wall, a floating staircase and poured concrete and wood siding walls that flow throughout the home inside and out.
Disappearing glass walls extend the open kitchen and great room onto the outdoor deck, which includes a built-in barbecue center, a covered dining area and an outdoor fireplace near the pool.
Sharapova, 38, retired in 2020 and is engaged to marry British businessman Alexander Gilkes.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
