Aztec sacrifice

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Aztecs

casts its watchful eye on the Costa Mesa High football team tonight, when

the Mustangs host winless La Quinta in a 7 o’clock nonleague game at

Newport Harbor High.

The Mustangs (5-2 and ranked No. 8 in CIF Southern Section Division IX)

are five-touchdown favorites against an Aztec squad which has not scored

since its season opener.

“I think they’re playing as close to their ability as they can,” Mesa

Coach Jerry Howell said of La Quinta, which has been outscored, 329-7,

since every key player, and the head coach, moved on after last season’s

8-3 playoff campaign.

“They’re working hard and trying to play well, but I think we’ll wear

them down.”

And if things weren’t imposing enough for first-year coach Guy Gardner’s

group, Howell said he hopes to use this interruption in his Pacific Coast

League schedule to renew his defense’s aggression.

“Our defense hasn’t been playing as well as it did early in the season,”

Howell said. “I don’t think we’ve turned the kids loose enough. We’ve

been stunting less than half the time the last three games. We plan to

turn our defense loose (tonight) and get the kids back to playing the

attacking style and flying to the ball.”

The Mustangs’ attacking four-four scheme, has not recorded a shutout

since blanking Bolsa Grande, 47-0, in Week 2. The same Bolsa squad

defeated the Aztecs, 18-0, in a Garden Grove League game Oct. 14.

The six straight shutouts are unparalleled in Orange County annals the

last eight seasons and no team has suffered more than six scoreless

outings in any season during the same span.

The Mustangs’ offense, averaging more than 31 points per game, should

find safe passage through a defense which has allowed the most points of

any county team.

Foremost among Mesa’s offensive weapons is county rushing leader C.J.

Zuniga. The junior tailback has carried 192 times for 1,363 yards. He has

scored 18 of his 19 touchdowns bursting through holes created by an

offensive front of tackles Eric Connaty and Charlie Amburgey, guards

Eliseo Martinez, Luther Mitchell and Bobby Dandy, center Scott Schepens

and tight end Willy Franco.

Zuniga, Mesa’s primary kick returner, has also amassed 1,792 all-purpose

yards in his first season at the school.

Should the Mustangs throw, an unlikely scenario, senior quarterback Dave

Weir is coming off what he considers his best passing effort in a 45-21

PCL win over University (10 of 15 for 120 yards).

Weir has completed 41 of 76 for 573 yards and four TDs and has rushed for

291 yards and six TDs.

The Mustangs’ single-game scoring high is 65 points, inflicted upon

Laguna Beach in a 1992 PCL victory.

It’s the first meeting between the two schools since 1977 and Mesa owns a

2-1 lead in the series.