COSTA MESA – Savanna made the most of a huge gift to score the go-ahead touchdown with just 99 seconds to play, then made two stops inside its 5-yard line to pull out a 13-8 nonleague victory over Costa Mesa Friday night at Estancia High.
Leroy Hibbert pushed in from 1 yard to give the Rebels (2-2) their first lead just two plays after a poor snap on a Costa Mesa punt sailed over Cameron Curet‘s head, giving them the ball at the Mustangs 7 with 2:20 to go.
Costa Mesa (0-5) then marched to the Rebels 3 as quarterback Sam Swanson connected for 36 yards to Rodrigo Carvalho at the Savanna 44 and for 34 yards to Michael Dias to the 8 – the Mustangs’ only completed passes of the night. But Savanna snuffed Dias at the 3 with nine seconds left and sacked Swanson at the 9, with Carvalho open in the end zone, on the final play.
The poor snap, coming after regular long-snapper Austin Sheffner left the game because of injury on the preceding series, covered 30 yards and gave Savanna, which gained just 16 second-half yards, an opportunity it did not expect.
Curet ran for 103 yards on 16 carries, most of it on an 85-yard touchdown early in the second quarter.
Savanna trimmed the deficit through two Jarred Pena field goals, a 34-yarder following a long drive at the close of the first half and a 27-yarder after Costa Mesa fumbled the ball away for the second time on successive drives to start the third quarter.
