Baldwin sees two Oiler teams

Rick Devereux

Costa Mesa High Coach Tom Baldwin and his staff are in a position

where they don’t know what type of team the Mustangs will face

tonight at 7 at Newport Harbor High.

Huntington Beach (0-0-1) played Los Amigos to a 21-21 tie in its

season opener, but the game was hard to evaluate because of the

drastic change from one half to the next.

“Huntington played really poorly in the first half and could have

been down 34-0 at the half,” Baldwin said. “But they came back and

totally dominated the second half, so we’re going to focus on the

second half.”

The Oilers return Justin Montes at running back. In last season’s

33-16 Mustang win, Montes rushed nine times for 25 yards as a junior.

Last week against the Lobos, he had 19 carries for 100 yards and

three touchdowns.

According to Baldwin, Coach Mike Groscot doesn’t do anything fancy

on offense for the Oilers.

“They run a lot of I-formation,” Baldwin said. “The power-pitch is

their No. 1 play.”

The Mustangs (0-2) will continue to blitz from different

formations in order to put pressure on the opposing offense, but

Baldwin said it would be difficult against a Huntington Beach

offensive line that has three All-Sunset League players returning in

Scott Duffy, Kyle Ennis and Sam Olive.

“That’s very good [to have three all-league linemen],” Baldwin

said. “Especially in the Sunset League with teams like Edison and Los

Alamitos.”

The Oilers will line up in a 3-4 defense, which allows blitzes to

come from almost anywhere on the field. Mesa will have to establish

the run if it hopes to snap its current four-game losing streak

dating back to last year.

“I think the thing we’ve improved on the most in the first two

weeks of this season is our running game,” Baldwin said. “We will

continue to try to get better at that.”

Junior Tyler Legg is the leading rusher for the Mustangs with 201

yards and one touchdown, averaging 4.6 yards a carry this year.

Another performer Baldwin is counting on is tight end/linebacker

Jeff Waldron. Baldwin said Waldron will line up in a traditional

tight end alignment close to the offensive line but will also be

split out as a wide receiver in order to create coverage mismatches.