League title decided tonight

Coach Jonathan Todd hasn’t mentioned it to his Laguna Beach High football team all week.

That wasn’t really necessary. Why bring up something almost all of the players are already thinking about?

The official theme of tonight’s Orange Coast League showdown against Costa Mesa isn’t “redemption.” Last year was last year; the 2009 Orange Coast League title is up for grabs tonight at Laguna Beach as both teams come in with 3-0 league records.

“I haven’t went there with the kids,” Todd said. “We’re a different team this year, I’ll tell you that.”

But, yes, the kids are thinking about that final league game last year, when the Breakers couldn’t hold a 22-0 lead and fell to Costa Mesa, 38-30.

A league title so close and then gone, as a last-ditch Laguna Beach rally ended at the Costa Mesa seven-yard line before time ran out.

Same scenario this year, but the Breakers would sure love a different result.

“We’ve circled this game since the beginning the year,” junior quarterback Austin Paxson said. “All the seniors want to go out on top. We were hoping they’d be 3-0 too, so it’d be set up like this.”

Paxson has already set the Laguna Beach school record with 32 career touchdown passes, and a record 23 of those have come this season. Seventeen of them have gone to Chris Paul, also a school record.

And Paul has similar thoughts about the game.

“We’re definitely going to want to get payback after our loss last year,” he said. “That was tough for all of us, really tough.”

The good news is, Laguna Beach (4-5) comes into the game playing some of its best football of the season. Paxson passed for just 55 yards in last week’s 27-17 win over Estancia, although he did have two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, one to Paul and one to Ethan Quirarte.

Yet the emergence of the running game has been key as well. Senior Alec Jaffe has 1,266 yards this season, which already ranks third in school history. He set the single-game record with his 361-yard night against Calvary Chapel.

Last week against Estancia, Jaffe had 169 yards and a touchdown, while sophomore Norty Penny added 125 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown run of his own.

“Alec Jaffe has been amazing from Day 1,” Paxson said. “But Norty Penney has stepped up too.”

Costa Mesa (6-3), coming off a bye, hasn’t lost a league game since 2007.

They come into tonight’s contest led by the passing of senior Todd Davis, who has thrown 12 touchdown passes against just two interceptions. Davis has 1,382 passing yards.

The Mustangs have spread the ball around on the ground, but junior Tyler Sheffner (657 yards, three touchdowns) is the leader. Sheffner had 146 yards in Mesa’s last game, a 31-7 win over Calvary Chapel on Oct. 30.

“It’s great,” Todd said. “I love that we’re both 3-0 [in league]. It’ll be a battle. I think it’ll come down to the [fourth] quarter.”

At the start of the season, he said he asked the players to write down their goals for the year. Every kid put down that they wanted to win a league title.

For the seniors, it would be their first. Jaffe described earlier in the year how when he was a freshman, the Breakers lost the frosh-soph league crown to Costa Mesa. And the Mustangs have also won the varsity title the last two years.

But maybe Todd was right in not talking to his team about last year. It’s a new year, and anything is possible.

“We’re really excited,” Paxson said. “This is our biggest game of the year.”