Cole Garvey
Staff Writer
Costa’s offense mounted a huge comeback to win their first Bay League game against the Peninsula Panthers by a score of 28-14.
Mira Costa’s Varsity Football Team, defeated the Peninsula Panthers 28-14 in their first game of Bay League play. Costa battled the Panthers at Costa’s Waller Stadium on Friday, Oct 5th at 7:00 pm.
“We started out slow, but eventually started to run the ball really well. Our defense played great, and didn’t give up many points,” Coach Don Morrow said.
Both teams started the first quarter slowly with neither team able to break through their opponent’s defense to score. Both teams were forced to punt several times during the quarter as both the Panthers and the Mustangs played good, hard nosed defense.
“Our defense played together really well in the first quarter. We were able to hold off their offense and force them to punt multiple times,” sophomore cornerback Jackson Fischer said.
At the beginning of the second, Costa’s defense stepped up and blocked a Panther 25 yard field goal attempt to keep Peninsula from putting their first points on the board. Later in the quarter however, Peninsula’s defense intercepted a pass from Costa’s junior quarterback Reed Vabrey, and ran it into the endzone for the Panthers’ first six points. Peninsula nailed their point after, to put them up 7-0. Next, a deep kickoff from the Panthers pinned the Mustangs deep in their own territory where on their first offensive play, Costa fumbled the ball on their own one yard line. Peninsula took advantage, recovering the ball and subsequently scoring on a one yard rushing touchdown to put the Panthers up 14-0 with 6:55 left in the half. Costa quickly rallied back, with a long offense drive that resulted in a rushing touchdown from senior running back Vashon Hill to send Costa down 14-7 going into halftime.
“Even though we went into halftime down 14-7, everyone kept their cool and we knew that we could come back and score on them at will,” sophomore offensive lineman Hank Dunlap said.
In the third quarter, Costa’s offense really started to come alive with an impressive touchdown run from senior fullback, Jonah Tavai. Costa used a healthy balance of running and passing in the third quarter, switching between two junior quarterbacks Reed Vabrey and Nick Carpino. With 3:15 left in the quarter, quarterback Reed Vabrey rushed for his first touchdown of the game, to give Costa a 21-14 lead going into the fourth quarter.
“We put the big boys out there, started to execute, and then ran over them in the second half,” junior quarterback Nick Carpino said.
Mira Costa’s defense controlled the fourth quarter, holding the Panthers scoreless throughout the final quarter. Costa’s defense swarmed Peninsula’s ball carriers determined not to let the Panthers back into the game. After forcing the Panther offense to punt the ball, Costa executed an impressive drive ending in a rushing touchdown from senior Vashon Hill. This touchdown sealed the Costa victory with a final score of 28-7 in favor of the Mustangs.
“We practiced all week and made sure that we knew everything that Peninsula could throw at us,” senior offensive lineman Robert Fiene said.
The Mustangs, now 2-4 on the season, and 1-0 in league play, will face the Morningside Monarchs at 7 pm on Friday, October 13th at Morningside High School. The Mustangs will be looking for their second Bay League win of the season.
“We haven’t won a game on the road yet, so we gotta prepare really well and execute during the game,” Coach Don Morrow said.
Leave a Reply