Turnovers foil Mesa

The Costa Mesa High football team, searching for its first win of the

season, figured it might have problems against defending Golden West

League champion Westminster Friday night. Helping the Lions out with

turnovers was not in the game plan.

Westminster picked off four passes in the second quarter and

returned two of them for touchdowns en route to a 47-6 league victory

over Costa Mesa at Orange Coast College.

On the first play in the second quarter, Costa Mesa’s Ryan French

threw a pass that went off the fingertips of Josh Lowe into the arms

of Westminster’s Adam Santana, who rambled 30 yards down the sideline

to give the Lions a 20-0 lead.

On Costa Mesa’s next possession, an interception by Tuan Vu set up

a 10-yard touchdown run for Mitchell Nhep.

A 35-yard interception return for a touchdown by Casey Beck and an

interception by Nhep at the Westminster 8-yard line concluded the

pickoff spree. The Lions led 33-0 at halftime.

Nhep also led the Westminster offense with 11 carries for 120

yards and two touchdowns.

“We’ve had problems with turnovers all year,” Costa Mesa Coach Jay

Johnson said. “Whether it’s been against a good or a bad team, we’re

not good enough to give other teams those opportunities.”

Late in the second quarter, Costa Mesa switched to its running

game and found success with 5-foot-8, 155-pound senior Ivan Ruiz, who

had 25 rushes for 106 yards for the night.

Ruiz had eight carries for 45 yards on Costa Mesa’s 56-yard drive

late in the second quarter. But the drive ended when French’s pass in

the end zone to Tony Krikorian was ruled incomplete.

“Ruiz is one of our spark plugs,” Johnson said. “He loves the game

of football. You can see it in practice and in games. From this point

on we’re going to try to feature him a little more.”

Costa Mesa avoided a shutout with an eight-play, 65-yard drive

early in the fourth quarter. A 23-yard pass play from French to

Krikorian highlighted the drive, which was capped off by French’s

1-yard quarterback sneak into the end zone with 6:22 left in the

game.

The Mustangs followed with a successful onside kick that was

recovered by Dennis Franco on the Westminster 44-yard line.

The Mustangs embarked on a 10-play, 36-yard drive that was

highlighted by Ruiz’s 6-yard carry, which put him over 100 for the

night.

But the drive ended on the Westminster 8-yard line, when French

threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-8 with 2:13 left in the game.

Costa Mesa’s defensive effort was led by sophomore linebacker Cody

de la Mater, who had two tackles for losses of yards, and London

Sapolu, who recored the team’s only sack in the second quarter.

Despite the lopsided score, Costa Mesa feels like good things are

about to happen. Last week the team almost pulled off its first

victory of the season against Estancia. Friday, they established a

strong ground game against a squad that is ranked No. 5 in CIF

Southern Section’s Division VII.

The Mustangs did not commit any penalties in the game.

“The kids prepare hard every week,” Johnson said. “We’re on the

edge of doing something good. It’ll come before the season ends.”

It could come as early as next week, when Costa Mesa (0-6, 0-2)

takes on Santa Ana.

Is a victory in the cards?

“Definitely,” Johnson said. “I think we can compete with Santa

Ana.”

Westminster 47, Costa Mesa 6

SCORE BY QUARTERS

*--*

West. 14 19 7 7 - 47

Mesa 0 0 0 6 - 6

*--*

FIRST QUARTER

West -- Vu 1 run (Boyd kick), 8:33.

West -- Cornwell 48 pass from Chapple (Boyd kick), 6:52.

SECOND QUARTER

West -- Jones 30 interception return (kick failed), 11:42.

West -- Nhep 10 run (kick failed), 10:44

West -- Beck 35 interception return (Boyd kick), 8:03.

THIRD QUARTER

West -- Nhep 5 run (Boyd kick), 9:18.

FOURTH QUARTER

West -- Nguyen 31 run (Boyd kick), 10:41.

CM -- French 1 run (run failed), 6:22.

A -- 400 (est.)

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

West -- Nhep, 11-120, 2 TDs; Osgood, 6-64; Nguyen, 10-56, 1 TD;

Gomez 4-23; Boyd 1-17, Vu, 1-1, 1 TD, Chapple, 2-minus-11.

CM -- Ruiz, 25-106; Krikorian, 2-7; Huynh, 2-6; French,

6-minus-11.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

West -- Chapple, 7-20-0, 146, 1 TD; Boyd, 0-1-0, 0.

CM -- French, 8-24-4, 79.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

West -- Cornwell, 2-66, 1 TD; Ray, 1-31; Vu, 1-15; Garcia, 1-13;

Nhep, 1-11, Boyd, 1-10.

CM -- Waldron, 3-35, Krikorian, 2-31, Huynh, 2-9, Lowe, 2-4.

GAME STATISTICS

*--*

West CM

First downs 17 11

Rushes-yardage 35-270 36-108

Passing yardage 146 79

Passing 7-31-0 8-24-4

Net return yards* 82 0

Sacks-yardage 2-18 1-12

Net yardage 498 187

Punts 1-29 5-27.1

Fumbles-fumbles lost 1-0 0-0

Flags-net yardage 7-59 0-0

Time of possession 20:33 27:27

*Punt returns, interceptions, fumble returns

*--*