COSTA MESA – Entering Friday night’s Orange Coast league matchup, Costa Mesa and Estancia were headed in opposite directions.
The Mustangs were winners of five of their first six, while the Eagles had lost four in a row. However, you would have thought those results were switched after Estancia hammered Costa Mesa, 23-0, in the Battle of the Bell.
“We are getting to a point where everyone is coming back healthy,” said Coach Mike Bargas. “We knew that we needed to play mistake-free football. The defense kept us in it and the offense did the things that we needed them to.”
Estancia (2-5, 1-1) shut down the Mustangs’ passing attack, holding both quarterbacks used to a collective 15-of-30 passing for 137 yards and two interceptions, both by safety and running back Tyler Ross on balls that hung over the middle of the field. Ross also had 60 yards on 12 carries.
Overall, the Eagles forced four turnovers and held the Mustangs (5-2, 1-1) to under 3 yards a carry.
Running back Jordan Balcazar caught a 44-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Connor Brown and scored from the one after his own 49-yard run set up the scoring opportunity.
Brown was 9-of-16 passing for 124 yards and rushed the ball 12 times for 26 yards and a score. Brown spread his nine completions out to six different receivers.
