Eagles, Mustangs ready to go

Costa Mesa and Estancia high school football players don’t need a lot of motivation headed into tonight’s showdown, to be held at 7 at Newport Harbor High.

After all, it’s the Battle for the Bell.

“Some of these kids have been waiting their whole lives for this game,” Estancia Coach Brian Barnes said.

But the Orange Coast League, which also includes Laguna Beach and Calvary Chapel, has just four teams. So, with only three Orange Coast League games for each school and two CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoff spots up for grabs, it makes it all the more important to come out on top in the league opener.

Estancia (5-2) and Costa Mesa (2-5) had differing degrees of nonleague success, but that matters little starting tonight.

“The kids are excited for a bunch of reasons,” Costa Mesa Coach Jeremy Osso said. “You win this game and you’re one of the frontrunners to make the playoffs, if not to win the league.”

On the flip side, a loss tonight would make a fight for the playoffs an uphill battle.

“You’ve got to win your first league game — you’ve got to win all of them,” Barnes said. “If you lose a league game, you could be done.”

The Mustangs are coming off their second win of the season, a 16-7 nonleague upset over Cerritos last week. In that game, like in most of Costa Mesa’s games, the power running game of senior D.J. Lepper was featured.

Lepper ran for 93 yards and a touchdown in the win over Cerritos. Senior quarterback Cody Waldron threw a touchdown pass to Asa Hawks and didn’t throw an interception, as the Mustangs committed no turnovers.

But Estancia, coming off a bye week, features its own power running game with senior Rafael Alejandre. Alejandre has rushed for 730 yards — an average of over 100 per game. Add in junior quarterback Mike Morley and senior receiver Matt Redding, and the Eagles have their share of offensive weapons.

Barnes said the bye week allowed his team a chance to refocus, after the Eagles suffered a 32-7 nonleague loss to West Ranch on Oct. 13.

“Sometimes bye weeks can take you out of sync,” Barnes said. “But last year we had a bye week before Costa Mesa and it helped us, and I think this year it will again.”

The game the second-year Estancia coach is referring to is last year’s 20-14 Eagles win. But, to be fair, that was before the Osso era began at Costa Mesa.

Osso said that the defense has really been playing well lately for Costa Mesa. The Mustangs defense is led by the front four of seniors London Sapolu and Rudy Hernandez and sophomores Juan Garces and Jason Schroeder.

“When we came in as a staff, we knew we could improve on defense and special teams,” Osso said. “We’ve been doing a good job improving defensively. We wanted to get better by league, and they’ve done that.”

He added that his team has another reason to be fired up: the fact that tonight’s game will be Estancia’s homecoming game. Typically, teams schedule homecoming opponents that they feel confident about beating.

“Of course, that will help add fuel to the fire,” Osso said. “Not that they need any other reason to be pumped up. We were underdogs last week [against Cerritos] too. We just have to worry about what we do on the football field. That’s all we can control, and that’s all we need to worry about.”

Injuries are often something that can’t be controlled, but both coaches said their teams are relatively healthy heading into tonight’s showdown. Costa Mesa saw sophomore linebacker Robbie Gemayel return last week and recover two fumbles.

Estancia, meanwhile, used the bye week to help heal the lingering injuries of receivers Eddie Tomasek (back) and Diego Carrasco (ankle).

Barnes, who was in attendance during last week’s Costa Mesa win, said he was impressed with the Mustangs.

“Watching them last week, they were a whole different team,” Barnes said. “And, in rivalry games, all bets are off.”

Barnes, who played in plenty of rivalry games as a football player at Los Alamitos High, knows the feeling.

“Last year was my first experience with this rivalry,” he said. “And it was a heck of a game last year.”

But, he added, his team’s confidence remains very high.

“We want to establish our running game,” Barnes said. “We’ll be doing the same things we’ve been doing all year. We haven’t changed who we are. Our kids are pretty confident about [tonight].”

Osso said the same about his Costa Mesa squad, adding that he feels the team’s 2-5 record is somewhat deceiving.

Savanna and Huntington Beach, teams Mesa lost to, are a combined 11-3.