Prep football: Lobos looming

Barry Faulkner

GARDEN GROVE - Lobo is Spanish for wolf, but there has been nothing

big and bad about the Los Amigos High football team’s postseason

performance over the last decade.

Yet, having made the playoffs for the 10th straight season, the Garden

Grove League champion Lobos (8-2) will be attempting to huff and puff and

blow Costa Mesa off to its postseason banquet when the two collide Friday

at 7 p.m. in a CIF Southern Section Division IX first-round playoff game

at Garden Grove High.

Coach Roger Takahashi’s Lobos, who claimed only the school’s fourth

league title this fall, bring a five-game winning streak into the game.

They are hoping that roll, which includes a 41-7 romp Oct. 19 over a 9-1

Garden Grove squad, will be enough to overcome a six-game postseason

losing streak that includes first-round ousters each of the last five

years, following a Division VII semifinal appearance in 1995.

Since failing to qualify for the playoffs in 1991, Los Amigos is 3-9

in the postseason, including a 21-13 loss last year to then-Pacific Coast

League champion University.

Costa Mesa (7-3) is back in the playoffs for the fifth time in six

years after breaking a streak of four straight trips last fall. The

Mustangs have also clinched the school’s sixth straight winning record,

which occurred just six times the program’s first 36 varsity seasons.

The Mustangs have dropped their last two CIF openers and are 5-6 in

the first round in their 42 seasons. Since winning three straight

postseason openers (1976, ’78 and ‘79), they are just 2-6 in playoff

debuts. Mesa’s only trip past the quarterfinals came in 1993, when the

Myron Miller-coached Mustangs lost in the Division VIII title game.

Friday’s winner will likely be faced with top-seeded defending

champion South Hills in next week’s quarterfinals, but both Takahashi and

first-year Mesa head man Dave Perkins would gladly accept the assignment.

This game should feature two productive running attacks, though

Takahashi said the key to the Lobos’ recent success has been better

run-pass balance.

Mesa, on the other hand, has regressed in the passing game since the

PCL campaign began. In five league games, the Mustangs completed just 17

passes for 232 yards and no touchdowns, averaging just more than 46 yards

per game via the air.

It’s the third-place Mustangs’ ground attack, however, which worries

Takahashi.

“They execute their offense very well and I’m concerned with how they

run the ball,” Takahashi said. “I think their quarterback (senior A.J.

Perkins) can throw when he has the opportunity.”

The Mesa ground game should be bolstered by the return of junior

fullback Keola Asuega, who sat out a 37-13 loss to University in the

regular-season finale with a strained hamstring.

Asuega has rushed for 940 yards and 14 touchdowns on 135 carries and

has assured his coach he’ll be ready this week.

Senior tailback Nick Cabico (698 yards and six TDs on 97 carries) is

another backfield threat, while senior Freddy Rodriguez and sophomore

Omar Ruiz have combined for more than 500 yards and eight touchdowns.

Los Amigos counters with sophomore sensation Anthony Matagi, a

5-foot-8, 170-pound darter who has amassed 1,463 rushing yards and 15 TDs

on 149 carries. Matagi, the sixth-leading rusher in Orange County, has

also caught 13 passes for 155 yards and a TD.

“(Matagi) is real quick and elusive,” said Perkins, who used the

latter word to describe sophomore quarterback Maopu Tuato.

Tuato, the younger brother of the late Ape Tuato, who set the school

career passing record with 2,753, before he was killed in a car accident

while attending college, has rushed for 387 yards and four TDs on 56

carries.

Tuato, listed at 5-8, 200, has also been productive through the air.

He has completed 48 of 113 for 931 yards and four TDs, with four

interceptions.

“Our quarterback has come a long way,” said Takahashi, a respected

offensive mind who has had successful teams at Los Amigos and La Quinta.

Costa Mesa’s passing game is triggered by the younger Perkins, who has

completed 52 of 133 for 588 yards and seven TDs, with just two

interceptions. His last TD pass came Oct. 5.

Senior tight end John Garcia is the Mustangs’ leading receiver with 14

catches for 214 yards and two TDs.

Tuato’s primary targets have been Wes Holoway-Taylor (averaging 20.5

yards on 15 catches) and Mat Hardin (averaging nearly 30 yards on 13

receptions). Holoway-Taylor has three TD catches and Hardin has two.

The Lobos are keyed up front by senior Mike Myers, a 5-8, 255-pound

center who earned All-Garden Grove League honors last season.

Defensively, the Lobos have seven players with one interception each.

Costa Mesa is led defensively by senior middle linebacker Bobby

Arroyo, as well as Cabico, who starts at strong safety and shares the

team interception lead (five) with free safety Freddy Rodriguez. The

Mustangs’ 16 interceptions have helped create a plus-13 turnover ratio.

Mesa has outscored opponents, 287-166, this season, while Los Amigos

has bettered foes, 299-169.

The Lobos losses are to Paramount and Irvine, neither of which made

the playoffs in Division II and Division VI, respectively.

Costa Mesa’s setbacks have come to Golden West League champion

Westminster, unbeaten PCL champion Northwood, seeded No. 3, and No.

4-seeded Uni.

It’s the first meeting between the two programs since 1993 and Los

Amigos holds a 3-1 series lead.