Trabuco Hills charging back into form

Notes from Orange County high school football:

It would have been easy to write off Trabuco Hills after the start it had this season.

The Mustangs, who were coming off of last season's appearance in the Southwest Division final, started the season with three consecutive losses.

"It was a surprise (to the team) after what we did a year ago and then to start 0-3," Trabuco Hills coach Jason Negro said Sunday. "It was a little frustrating for them.

"Our first three games, a lot of it was the product of the opponents we played. Laguna Hills (9-0) is undefeated. San Clemente is 8-2, that's two of our losses. …And in the Villa Park game, they played well and we didn't."

Since then, the Mustangs have won six of their past seven games.

The Mustangs' got their season moving in the right direction with the return of quarterback Jason Mayer, who missed the San Clemente and Villa Park games.

"We got healthy at the right time and started putting things together," Negro said. "Hopefully, we're on a roll now."

"They understood and they knew the magnitude of the injuries that we had and how that was going to affect us once we got them healthy," he said.

Trabuco Hills finished second in the Sea View League to Foothill and will face Valencia, a second place team from the Empire League, Saturday in a Southwest Division first round game.

• Not only were the first-round pairings announced in each of the 13 division Sunday, but so were the results of the coin flips to decide the host teams for the second round matchups.

Here are some of the interesting potential second round matchups: If Tesoro and Mater Dei both win their Pac-5 first round games, the Titans would be the home team.

The Titans were the host team last year in a first-round meeting with the Monarchs at Saddleback College.

Servite would play host to Mission Viejo if the teams were to meet in the second round.

In the Southwest Division, El Dorado would play host to La Habra in the second round and Tustin would host Foothill.

In the Southern Division, Westminster would play host to Garden Grove. The Argonauts defeated the Lions earlier this season.

The complete list of potential second round match-ups will be posted on our blog at ocvarsity.com.

• Here is how I voted in this week's county top 10 poll: 1. Tesoro; 2. Orange Lutheran; 3. Mater Dei; 4. Servite; 5. Mission Viejo; 6. Fountain Valley; 7. Los Alamitos; 8. Edison; 9. Newport Harbor; 10. San Clemente.

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com