By: Sophia Vaughn
Sports Editor
A broken scoreboard and the El Segundo Eagles were no match for the Mira Costa Mustangs, as Costa proved that even on Friday the 13th, luck was on their side, winning 52-7.
Costa went up against the El Segundo Eagles on September 13th at 7 p.m. at Waller Stadium in their first home game of the season. The Mustangs came out with a strong passing game and dynamic offense led by junior quarterback Sam Whitney.
“Whenever he’s [Whitney is] able to be that accurate on the pass it opens up so many opportunities for the run and it just makes it so much easier, “ junior running back Ryan Moreno said.
The Mustangs started off strong in the first quarter, as Whitney connected with sophomore running back Kayle Marsh for a 44 yard touchdown on the opening offensive drive, making the score 7-0. The Mustang dominance continued when a short, bullet pass to junior wide receiver and kicker Thomas Southey landed the Mustangs in the endzone yet again for another touchdown. Southey scored once more to close out the quarter on a 62 yard reverse play, giving Costa a 21-0 lead going into the 2nd quarter.
“The receivers ran great routes and we designed plays that we thought would work against the defense and they did, “ Whitney said.
Costa continued to control the game in the 2nd quarter when Southey opened up the quarter with a 32 yard field goal. Whitney and Southey then connected again for a 72 yard pass play, giving the Mustangs a 31-0 lead. Whitney continued his standout performance when he once again executed a long pass play to Marsh for a 75 yard touchdown. After a string of three and outs, the Mustang defense also made a critical play when junior cornerback Josh Beste recovered an El Segundo fumble and dashed into the endzone for a 7 yard touchdown, closing out the half, 45-0.
“I believe that we all worked hard to learn our assignments [this week], “ senior offensive lineman Diego Osterling Tabatabaian said. “We were just able to execute cleanly.”
Costa opened the 3rd quarter with yet another touchdown, as junior running back Ryan Moreno ran the ball straight into the endzone for a 46 yard rushing touchdown. By the middle of the third quarter, Costa had taken most of their starters out of the game, and closed out the quarter with a 52-0 lead.
“Having such an amazing lead made everyone super excited and no one was really able to contain it, “ junior offensive lineman Matt Riggle said.
The fourth quarter saw a slew of second string, third string, and Junior Varsity athletes having the chance to see some playing time. The Eagles managed to score a rushing touchdown late in the 4th quarter, but were unable to recover from the massive deficit, and Costa took the 52-7 win.
“It felt good to let kids who don’t get to play a lot get in and get the opportunity to move up the ladder and show what skills they have,” Moreno said.
The Mustangs, now 2-2, will face the West Torrance Warriors at 7 p.m. at Waller Stadium on September 20th. Costa hopes to have a shot at redemption after a devastating loss to the Warriors last season, and will be working on defense, assistant coach Mike Freeman said.
“Next week we’re probably just going to work on our pass protection, “ Freeman said. “West Torrance is a pretty good passing team.”
Leave a Reply