Mesa takes PCL’s No. 1 spot

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - The only thing West Coast about Friday’s Pacific

Coast League football title showdown between visiting Costa Mesa High and

Corona del Mar was its location.

Those looking for three-receiver sets, flooded zone defenses and much

more in the air than marine mist, were, hopefully, turned away at the

gate.

Oh, no. This 14-0 Costa Mesa victory was one was for the macho,

3-yards-and-a-faceful-of-wet-sod purists, who prefer pounding pads to

scorched scoreboards and worn-out chain crews.

“We knew it would be a battle of wills,” Mesa Coach Jerry Howell. “And we

outwilled them tonight.”

The victory made the Mustangs (8-2, 3-1 in league) PCL co-champions with

the Sea Kings (3-7, 3-1). More importantly, Mesa, by virtue of its

head-to-head win, locked up the league’s No. 1 playoff berth. It also

likely helped secure a top-four seed when the CIF Southern Section

playoff pairings are announced Sunday.

“I think it’s huge,” Howell said of the No. 1 designation. “It means

we’re playing a third-place team and we’re rockin’ and rollin’ next

week.”

CdM, which takes solace in its first league title since 1988, is the

PCL’s No. 2 playoff representative, while University, which knocked off

title-contending Estancia Thursday, is the No. 3 entry.

Estancia, which gave Mesa its only PCL loss (a 34-14 thumping Oct. 15)

will seek the division’s lone at-large berth.

A complicated coin-flip scenario which would have accompanied a CdM

victory, was squelched by Mesa’s unrelenting defense, as well as a

Mustang offense which made the games only big plays.

“Two plays,” CdM Coach Dick Freeman said of the difference in the game.

“Two, lousy, stinkin’ plays.”

The first of the aforementioned game turners came one play after a Mesa

defense popped the ball loose from a CdM running back and cornerback Greg

Stewart recovered at the Mustangs’ 35 midway through the second quarter.

Senior quarterback Dave Weir rolled right and connected with senior tight

end Willy Franco, who brushed off one tackler near the southern sideline

and bowled over a second, before losing his feet on a 43-yard pickup.

A leaping catch by Luis Day on a 16-yard fade pattern gave the visitors

first-and-goal at the 4 and junior tailback C.J. Zuniga soared over the

fourth-down pile for a 1-yard touchdown with 3:37 left in the half.

It looked both defenses may render Zuniga’s leaping score the game’s only

points, until CdM threatened on its first second-half possession.

The Sea Kings, paced by senior tailback Grant Estabrook’s hammerhead

running, went 65 yards in 16 plays, consuming nearly nine minutes of the

third period, before finally hitting the wall at the Mesa 16.

A 35-yard field-goal attempt went wide left, however, and a Mesa defense

which employed a seven-man line most of the game, had withstood the

biggest attack on its third shutout of the season, its second in three

games.

“We call that the 40-go-zero,” Mesa Defensive Coordinator Tom Baldwin

said of the scheme, which dropped outside linebacker Weir to an end spot,

thrust inside ‘backer Shaun Ferryman into the middle the trenches and

rolled safety Franco into a linebacking spot.

With Mesa seemingly deflated by its failure to score, Zuniga, who had

been contained to that point, took advantage. Orange County’s leading

rusher, who came in averaging 201 yards per game, had just 49 yards on 22

attempts, before turning the fifth play of the possession into the game’s

biggest.

Bursting through a hole created by center Scott Schepens and right guard

Luther Mitchell, among others, Zuniga raced 61 yards to paydirt.

Luis Avalos’ second conversion kick finalized the scoring with 8:53 left

in the game.

“I challenged my offensive line the whole game,” said Zuniga, who

finished with 127 yards on 32 attempts to up his season total to 1,937

yards. His two TDs leave him one shy of the school single-season record

of 29, set by Charles Chatman in 1994.

“(CdM) had the best (defensive) scheme we’ve faced yet. They did a heck

of job stopping me, but our o’ line did the job on that last touchdown.

(Mitchell who had hobbled off the field late in the first half with a

sprained right ankle), was crying from the pain the whole third and

fourth quarter. But he stayed in there and he got a block.”

Mitchell said there wasn’t a choice about whether to play through the

pain.

“It was time to win the PCL,” said the 5-foot-8, 300-plus pound Mitchell,

who with ice pack scrunched against his neck and grass stains disguising

his sweat-drenched white jersey, was the perfect postgame poster boy for

this hard-fought struggle.

Estabrook finished with 102 rushing yards on 26 carries, while CdM

defenders Blake Hacker, Nick Prosser, Jay Bottom, David Beser (an

interception), Brandon Johnson, Dave Richardson, Travis Hackett and Adam

Cooper made Freeman proud.

Spearheading Mesa’s defense were Ferryman, Danny Mardikian, Fernando

Aronna, Todd Duddridge, Antony Grubisich, Weir, Patrick Hulliger,

Stewart, Jake Cleveland (a late interception) and Franco.

“We knew it would be a tough game and we knew we had to stop their run,”

Franco said. “(Estabrook) is big and he runs really hard. We knew we had

to fight after losing to Estancia, and this feels really good.”

Franco also had 54 yards on three receptions, as Weir completed 5 of 10

pass attempts for 72 yards.

Mesa, which had lost 23 of 29 previous meetings with its Newport-Mesa

District rival, claims only its fourth league title in the program’s

38-season history, its first since ’93.