Young team has few mistakes from which they can learn

By Sandor Kopitz
Staff Writer

On opening night of the 2010 campaign, coming off winning the CIF championship, the Mira Costa Mustangs fell to the Los Angeles Loyola Cubs in a low scoring game that ended 10-7.

The game started off very quickly. Loyola’s running back Jared Baker ran for a 73 yard touchdown along the sideline. Quickly overturned by a holding penalty, Loyola punted. This punt was subsequently blocked by senior J.R. Oshima, and resulted in a safety which meant that Costa took the early lead.

“We had a strong start but the little things ended up killing us. We can easily improve upon them by focusing and working harder in practice,” said senior Geoff La Pointe.

Costa then drove down the field early in the second quarter and set up a 37 yard field goal. Senior kicker Brendan Sofen easily put it in. Costa continued to move the ball throughout the first half; however, the momentum shifted when Loyola blocked one of Costa’s punts and put Costa in the red zone.

Loyola’s running back Jared Baker ran to the right and quickly determined that he didn’t have a hole to break through. He decisively reversed and scooted around the entire Mustang defense, and scored a touchdown. Costa trailed 7-5 at the half.

“We played hard and really wanted to win but the game is over now and we must move on and focus on our next game and what we have to work on,” said senior fullback Connor Vartanian.

Costa missed opportunities such as a field goal late in the third quarter. Many drives ended in punts and fumbled deep into Costa territory, which led to a Loyola field goal. Loyola led 10-5 after these mistakes.

The Mustangs had one last promising drive late in the fourth quarter which included a long wide receiver pass from Troy Saemann to Sam Stekol which put Costa deep into Cub territory. Costa turned the ball over on downs, going four and out, which gave Loyola the ball for the remainder of the game.

“We overall are a young team that made little mistakes that cost us the game, but we will learn from them and we will still have a great season,” said Vartanian.