Battle for the Bell: Eagles stun Mustangs

With 3½ minutes left in the Battle for the Bell football game, fireworks went off near the visitor’s stands at Jim Scott Stadium. Estancia High’s fans began to celebrate early on Friday night.

The Eagles were the away team against archrival Costa Mesa, but they felt right at home.

The chants of “This is our house!” began well before kickoff and Estancia went on to own the 49th edition of the cross-town rivalry, shutting out the Mustangs, 23-0.

The Eagles desperately needed this win, ending a five-game losing streak, their worst in 12 years. The defending Orange Coast League champions earned their first win in league play, a week after losing the opener to league favorite Calvary Chapel, 23-21, on the same field.

Estancia (2-5, 1-1 in league) ended the Mustangs’ best start in four years by coming away with two fumbles and two interceptions. Costa Mesa (5-2, 1-1), ranked No. 9 in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division poll, lost to the Eagles for the fifth time in six years.

“I thought defense was awesome tonight,” said Estancia Coach Mike Bargas, whose team only allowed 12 rushing yards and 125 passing yards. “I think this is the first time this season, beside the first game [that we won against Loara, 37-14], that we played all four quarters.”

The contest also marked the first time Estancia had running back Jordan Balcazar since he went down to an injury on Sept. 18.

Balcazar was one of two players who returned to action after missing time because of an injured shoulder, quarterback Ben Swanson did for Costa Mesa. Balcazar, who was out the past three games, is the one who didn’t look rusty.

Balcazar rushed 17 times for 104 yards and a touchdown.

The first carry by Balcazar didn’t go his way, fumbling on a fourth-and-one run that saw Estancia turn the ball over on downs on Costa Mesa’s 40-yard line. But the junior delivered on his third chance, ripping a 49-yard run to set up his one-yard touchdown run, helping the Eagles jump out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

“The injury just got the best of me [on my first run when I took a shot in my right shoulder],” Balcazar said, “but … I went hard the rest of the game.”

After falling behind, Costa Mesa brought in Swanson at quarterback midway through the first quarter. The Mustangs started Christian Villaverde, giving him two series before making the switch to Swanson.

When Swanson was out the lineup the past two games, Costa Mesa started Cameron Curet, a wide receiver, at quarterback. Instead, with Curet and Swanson available, Costa Mesa Coach Glen Fisher wanted to go in a different direction at the start against the Eagles.

“It’s what we thought gave us the best chance at the moment,” Fisher said of going with Villaverde, who completed one pass for a negative yard and rushed three times for 12 yards. “He hadn’t played quarterback before. We needed to try do something.”

Like Villaverde, Swanson, who completed 14 of 28 passes for 126 yards, couldn’t get in a rhythm either. The sophomore had passes dropped, or he overthrew receivers.

The offense went three-and-out with Swanson as the signal caller, and on Estancia’s third possession, the Eagles struck. After quarterback Connor Brown’s pass on first down fell incomplete, he threw again on the next down. This pass proved successful, going for a 44-yard touchdown.

Brown hit to Alejandro Mondragon underneath and the senior bolted toward the Estancia sideline, breaking a tackle en route to finding the end zone. The Eagles took a 7-0 lead with 4:15 left in the opening quarter, and they forced a quick three-and-out and got the ball right back.

The ground game sparked Estancia’s second score. On first down from midfield, Balcazar ran for 49 yards, leaving the offense on the one. One play later, Balcazar rushed for a touchdown and Estancia built at 14-0 lead with 3:04 to go in the first quarter.

The rest of the first half featured little offense. The Mustangs only moved the chains twice, on a 35-yard pass Curet went up and wrestled away from the defensive back near midfield late in the first quarter, and on a face mask penalty on Estancia early in the second quarter.

Right after the penalty that put Costa Mesa on Estancia’s 29, getting the ball to the quarterback was difficult for the Mustangs for the second time in the first half. Center Sammy Swanson snapped the ball over his brother Ben’s head and Estancia recovered the ball on the 43.

Estancia didn’t take advantage of the Mustangs’ second bad snap for a turnover. Offensively, the only first down in the second quarter the Eagles recorded was on a 10-yard run by Brown with 4:42 remaining before halftime.

With a 14-0 lead and its defense shutting out an anemic offense, holding the Mustangs to 56 yards in the first half, Estancia liked its chances in the second half.

Balcazar put the ball on the ground for a second time in the third quarter, but Costa Mesa gave the ball right back to the Eagles. Tyler Ross picked off a Ben Swanson pass near Estancia’s five-yard line and the free safety returned it to the 35-yard line.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Ross intercepted Swanson again inside Estancia’s 10-yard line. The turnover led to Estancia’s longest possession, a nine-play, 91-yard drive that chewed off almost four minutes off the clock. Brown’s one-yard sneak for a touchdown put Costa Mesa away with 2:57 left.

“We’ve been playing decent football, but not good enough to win, so we just knew we had to play mistake-free football,” said Bargas, whose program holds a 29-19-1 edge in the series against Costa Mesa. “It’s a huge monkey off my back. We had lost the last two games by [a combined] three points. [The Mustangs] were 5-1 and we were 1-5 [coming into Friday], but when we play this game, it’s any man’s football game.”

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Estancia 23, Costa Mesa 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Estancia 14 – 0 – 0 – 9 — 23

Costa Mesa 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0

FIRST QUARTER

E – Mondragon 44 pass from Brown (Hernandez kick), 4:15.

E – Balcazar 1 run (Hernandez kick), 3:04.

FOURTH QUARTER

E – Hernandez 22 FG, 8:26.

E – Brown 1 run (kick failed), 2:57.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

E – Balcazar, 17-104, 1 TD.

CM – Villaverde, 3-12.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

E – C. Brown, 8-18-0, 123, 1 TD.

CM – B. Swanson, 14-28-2, 126.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

E – Mondragon, 1-44, 1 TD.

CM – Curet, 4-53.