Prep football: Football fellowship

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - First, the Costa Mesa High football team shared the

wealth Friday night. Then, Coach Dave Perkins’ Mustangs distributed the

dough.

The dough in question was pizza crust, which Mesa and the Canadian

visitors from Centennial High in Coquitlam, British Columbia, shared as

part of a little postgame football fellowship at a local pizza parlor.

The aforementioned wealth refers to offensive opportunities, as Mesa

(2-1) utilized 11 different ball carriers and four different receivers to

post a 58-20 nonleague triumph.

“It’s really important for us to spread the ball around, so teams

don’t start keying on one guy,” said Perkins, who was without the

services of second-leading rusher Nick Cabico, who sat out resting a

hamstring injury.

“Last year (at Estancia) we got into a situation where teams were

focusing on Andy Romo, because he was so important to our offense. We

wanted to avoid that this year.”

In addition, Perkins gave senior fullback Jesse Cardenas, who was the

third-leading rusher going in, just two carries for 6 yards.

But, Centennial seemed to have enough problems contending with the

Mustangs who did have the ball, as six different Mesa players scored

touchdowns to help account for the third-best single-game scoring output

in school history. The Mustangs dropped 65 points on Laguna Beach in 1992

and scored 63 against Santa Ana in ’94.

Mesa had some problems adjusting to the Centaurs’ smashmouth double

wing, but Perkins was not displeased with his defense’s performance.

Perkins, however, reserved most of his praise for his offense.

“I thought we were real effective, offensively,” he said. “I thought

we improved dramatically from last week (a 22-16 loss to Westminster).”

Perkins said one big difference was the inclusion of tight end John

Garcia in the passing game. Hampered by a cast that protected a broken

thumb the first two games, Garcia came in without a reception this

season. But he caught three A.J. Perkins passes for 63 yards, including

touchdowns of 14 and 30 yards, in his first game without the cast.

Perkins said Centennial’s physical prowess (an offensive line that

averaged 6-foot-2, 266 pounds) forced them to cram more and more

defensive personnel in the box as the game went on.

“We wound up with an eight-man line and we brought our corners up,

too,” Perkins said. “Once we made some adjustments, we did much better.”

Perkins said the experience of playing an international opponent could

not have gone better for his players.

“Their coach (Kevin Chin) was a great guy and I thought their kids

were very well coached,” Perkins said. “They did a lot of good things,

but I think our level of football was a little higher than what they’re

used to. They were fundamentally sound, they lined up right, and they

didn’t seem to be confused.”

Perkins said his players also enjoyed interacting with the Centaurs

off the field.

“Going out for pizza after the game was a neat experience,” Perkins

said. “Before the game, we played the Canadian national anthem before we

played ours and the two teams knelt together in prayer after the game.

They’re coach told me they had a great time.”

Perkins said there are already preliminary discussions about the

Mustangs making a trip to Canada to play Centennial, perhaps sometime in

the next three years.