Estrada hurts Mesa

SANTA ANA — At halftime of Thursday night’s Orange Coast League game, the Saddleback High football announcer gave an update on a Roadrunners alumnus.

Saddleback graduate Rishard Matthews played well for the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night against the New England Patriots, catching seven passes for 62 yards.

Saddleback fans at the high school game, though, were able to witness an even more impressive performance.

Junior running back Geovanni Estrada had 41 carries for 203 yards and four touchdowns as the Roadrunners routed Costa Mesa, 42-7, at Santa Ana Valley High, damaging the Mustangs’ hopes of advancing to the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs.

Costa Mesa (5-4, 1-3 in league) has lost three in a row and can no longer earn one of the league’s top three spots, which grants an automatic playoff berth. The Mustangs will try to win next week against first-place Calvary Chapel and hope that they are one of the two at-large teams chosen in the Southern Division.

The banged up Mustangs did not particularly look like a playoff team against Saddleback (5-4, 2-2), which can clinch a playoff berth by beating Estancia next week.

“They literally kicked our [behind] up front,” Costa Mesa Coach Glen Fisher said after Saddleback rushed for 287 total yards. “It’s pretty hard to play that way. They pushed us around up front. They asserted their will on us up front, so hat’s off to them. They did what they wanted to do.”

Estrada set the tone. By halftime, he already had 25 carries for 133 yards, as well as touchdown runs of 15 and 10 yards. The Roadrunners led, 14-0, at the break after taking advantage of three Costa Mesa fumbles in the first half.

Two came as receivers fought for extra yardage, and the third was when Saddleback’s Rene Gonzalez ripped the ball away from the running back.

A week after fumbling eight times on shotgun snaps in a 27-6 loss to Godinez, the Mustangs only had one such fumble on Thursday night. But they did have six turnovers, which also included two interceptions.

“You can’t turn the ball over when you struggle to score like we do, and we turned it over a lot,” Fisher said. “You can’t turn the ball over in our end of the field and expect to come out on the right side of it.”

The Mustangs threw the ball often with junior quarterback Christian Villaverde, who had 39 pass attempts. The longest gain was 25 yards on a leaping catch by senior Cameron Curet, who secured it at the Saddleback 10-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Three plays later, senior running back Jonathan Brucales scored from two yards out, cutting the Saddleback lead to 21-7.

But the Roadrunners would score three more touchdowns. The final one by Estrada was on the ground was a three-yard rush.

“I thought today was a pretty great game and I tried my best,” Estrada said after the game. “We were confident that we were going to win, based on film that we watched. We were like, ‘OK, we got this, we have to win this game.’ If we don’t win, we’re not going to go to the playoffs. We put all our hearts into the game and we came out with a victory. Next week [against Estancia], we’re going to come out and pour our hearts out, and we’re going to get that victory and go to the playoffs.”

Estrada admitted the career-high in carries had him tired at times, but he was motivated to keep going in a game the Roadrunners had to win.

Costa Mesa now has seven days to try to figure out how to slow Calvary Chapel, which takes a 3-0 league record into Friday’s game against Laguna Beach.

Mustangs senior defensive back/receiver Josh Snipes returned from a neck injury suffered last week against Godinez, and he had an interception and a 33-yard punt return. But Costa Mesa was again without senior linebacker Mason Mataafa (shoulder).

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Saddleback 42, Costa Mesa 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CM 0 – 0 – 0 – 7 — 7

Sad 7 – 7 – 7 – 21 — 42

FIRST QUARTER

Sad – Estrada 15 run (Oropeza kick), 8:38.

SECOND QUARTER

Sad – Estrada 10 run (Oropeza kick), 7:27.

THIRD QUARTER

Sad – Estrada 8 run (Oropeza kick), 9:07.

FOURTH QUARTER

CM – Brucales 2 run (McMann kick), 7:03.

Sad – Roa 47 pass from Zuno (Oropeza kick), 6:32.

Sad – Estrada 3 run (Oropeza kick), 4:46.

Sad – Garcia 11 run (Oropeza kick), 0:36.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

CM – Brucales, 17-33, 1 TD.

Sad – Estrada, 41-203, 4 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

CM – Villaverde, 21-39-2, 146.

Sad – Zuno, 9-18-1, 134, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

CM – Curet, 5-53.

Sad – Reyes, 4-68.