Mesa a lock?

BARRY FAULKNER

The Costa Mesa High football team has endured spring practice, summer

passing league and weight training, preseason drills and the

three-game preleague schedule.

Now, comes the seven-week “break” before the CIF Southern Section

Division VII playoffs.

Oh sure, the defending Golden West League champions, who turned

last year’s Golden West debut into a six-game victory tour, could

face a challenge from Westminster, Orange and possibly Saddleback.

But, barring a supreme effort by the Lions, Panthers and Roadrunners,

and/or a little game-night sleepwalking by the Mustangs, Coach Dave

Perkins’ squad figures to thunder into the postseason with an

inflated 9-1 record, inflated egos, and a history of quickly

deflating such euphoria with a first-round playoff exit.

After two wins in its first three games, capped by a dominating

41-13 triumph at Laguna Beach Friday, Perkins has declared his team a

smooth-running unit on both sides of the ball. What would be only the

third outright league crown in the program’s 44 varsity seasons is

virtually expected.

That’s the good news.

The bad news: Te Mustangs (2-1), ranked No. 3 in CIF Division VII,

may be no more prepared for the higher level of competition they’ll

meet in the playoffs than they were at Monday’s practice. Last

year’s seven straight wins to end the regular season merely set the

Mustangs up for a 15-14, first-round home loss to Gabrielino. It was

the fourth straight first-round exit for Costa Mesa, which has now

lost 6 of 7 playoff openers since advancing to the CIF Division VIII

final in 1993.

Estancia, meanwhile, is hoping its emergence from the darkness of

a combined 1-18 record in 2001-02, including 11 straight league

losses, will include a run at one of the league’s three guaranteed

playoff berths. But while the Craig Fertig-led Eagles (2-1) are still

a feel-good story this fall, they will be hard-pressed to emerge from

a second division that figures to also include Santa Ana and Ocean

View.

So, as league action kicks off Friday with Saddleback vs. Costa

Mesa, Estancia vs. Ocean View and Santa Ana vs. Orange, here’s a look

at how the league might eventually stack up:

* Costa Mesa - The complacency red flags should fly highest for

Saddleback and Estancia. Saddleback, though 1-2, has played the best

preleague schedule among league schools and Mesa is feeling good

about its big win at Laguna.

Estancia, bent on regaining the perpetual Bell trophy it last

claimed under Perkins’ leadership in 2000, falls between Orange (Oct.

23) and Westminster (Nov. 7) on the schedule.

* Orange - Coach Greg Gibson, a former Orange Coast College

defensive lineman, has instilled some toughness in a program that was

2-18 in 2000 and ‘01, but prolific Durrell Moss is not among the

Panthers’ 13 returning starters. Orange (2-1) has scored a

league-best 95 points thus far.

* Westminster - Coach Ted McMillen’s Lions (2-1), the league

champions in 2001, have outscored foes, 73-29, this fall. But their

two victories are against winless opponents.

* Saddleback - Coach Jerry Witte, in his 30th year, has even more

respect from his peers than experience and he annually gets the most

out of a program that peaked with a CIF championship in 1985. The

Roadrunners’ 1-2 record is a little deceiving, since the losses are

to unbeatens Tesoro, ranked No. 8 in CIF Division IX, and Canyon of

Canyon Country, No. 2 in CIF Division II.

* Estancia - Fertig and his staff have the Eagles believing and

230-pound seniors Bubba Kapko and Mike Cahill are monsters at both

running back and linebacker. But the playoff invitations may be

delayed until 2004.

* Santa Ana - The Saints (2-1) have defeated winless Bolsa Grande

and Anaheim, and don’t figure to have as much talent or muscle as

last year’s third-place finisher.

* Ocean View - Veteran quarterback Alex Hickerson may not have

enough help to keep the Seahawks (1-2) from escaping the cellar.