Costa Mesa falls to Katella

ANAHEIM — Despite the Costa Mesa High football team’s strong second-half effort, the challenge of playing an away homecoming game with seven of its starters on the bench proved to be too much for the Mustangs (1-5) to overcome in a 48-7 nonleague loss to Katella (2-3) Friday at La Palma Park.

A good defensive effort in the second half by the Mustangs held the potent Knights’ offense to only seven points.

The Costa Mesa offense put points on the board when Cody Waldron, who threw for 82 yards and one touchdown, connected with Kirkland Huynh (66 yards receiving and a touchdown) for a 13-yard strike in the fourth quarter.

“My guys fought ‘til the end and I’m real proud of them for that,” Costa Mesa head coach Jeremy Osso said.

Playing without starting tailback D.J. Lepper was a big blow to the Costa Mesa offense and the effects were obvious early on as the offense seemed to have trouble putting anything together in the first half.

“Their running back (Lepper) is their best player, and playing them without him made it much easier,” Katella head coach Dominik Unger said.

Lepper and six other starters were benched for violating team rules.

“There’s always going to be situations that arise and we have to be able to overcome them,” Osso said.

The Knights took advantage of their home field and a fired up homecoming crowd to build a 41-point first half lead.

Looking past the first half mistakes, Osso saw promise in his team’s second-half play and looked forward to the future.

“I don’t think this is that big of a setback and I think we can still make strides to get to where we want to get to,” Osso said.