by Paul Teetor
Mustang Win Streak Continues
The Mira Costa football team extended its winning streak over archrival Redondo to an incredible seven straight games with a thrilling 14-13 victory Friday night.
While the victory still meant a lot emotionally to the Costa players and their fans — and ensured backyard bragging rights for another year — the win won’t affect the Bay League standings. That’s because Redondo has been moved by the CIF into the Pioneer League while Mira Costa stayed in the Bay League. The win leaves the Mustangs with a 2-0 record in the young season while Redondo falls to 1-1.
Traditionally, the two neighboring schools always play the last game of the regular season, before the playoffs start. They’ve played that way every year since 1955. But this year, because it was a non-league game, it was scheduled for the second week of the season.
This game felt strange and out of the normal sequence for players, fans and the media. But change is part of sports – after all, USC and UCLA are now in the Big Ten! — and so everyone adapted and made it another memorable, hard-fought close game in a series that has featured memorable, hard-fought close games for almost 70 years.
This was a game that Redondo had seemingly wrapped up, with a 13-2 lead mid-way through the fourth quarter. But in the space of 17 seconds, Costa crawled within 5 points and then won it on the most unlikely play of the night.
Ethan Maleman, a steady, reliable, sure-handed running back had already run for both Redondo touchdowns. He had fumbled only once in his four seasons with the Seahawks, but now chose the worst possible time for the second fumble of his career.
Costa had just scored on a 7-yard run by quarterback Liam Meeker to cut the lead to 13-8 when Redondo took over with the chance to run out the clock with a long drive and thereby claim the victory.
Instead Maleman, on an off-tackle run, was hit hard, fumbled the ball and watched in horror as it bounced right to Mira Costa senior defensive back Will Nammack.
“The ball just bounced in my hands, right place, right time,” Nammack said. “I’ve got to give all the credit to our D-line and our linebackers. They made a great play. We were able to get it out and I basically walked it in.”
Nammack sprinted 27 yards for a touchdown and the winning score. The Redondo home crowd looked on in disbelief as what seemed like a sure victory – and at long last an end to the six-game losing streak to Costa – suddenly disappeared.
The Sea Hawks tried to respond with one more drive, but quarterback Niko London missed on several long passes. His final attempt was a fourth-and-19 pass that fell harmlessly to the turf. Time ran out on a dispirited Redondo team that had seemed so close to victory just a few minutes before.
Sea Hawks coach Keith Ellison was philosophical about the meaning of the last-minute loss.
“Most of these kids grow up with each other,” Ellison said. “So, it’s a lot of bragging rights at stake here. They’ve had our number seven straight years now. Tonight is tough.”
He searched for the right words to put the loss in context for his heart-broken team.
“I’m kind of at a loss for words here. It’s a tough game to lose,” Ellison said. “Yeah, it’s the fumble, but you’ve watched enough football to know that it’s never just one play. There’s other times that we had opportunities to really put the game away and put pressure on them, but we didn’t.”
So in the end it was the Mira Costa senior safety Nammack, the hero of the game, cradling the victory surfboard after a dramatic finish that he will remember for the rest of his life.
The Sea Hawks?
They’ll try to forget this one as soon as possible.
Before the contest, Los Angeles Chargers offensive linemen Zion Johnson and Trey Pipkins III took part in the coin toss. The game was the Chargers’ high school game of the week.
Redondo will host Huntington Beach Friday night while Mira Costa will travel to Damien for a tough battle. Damien is ranked number 22 in the LA Times top 25 Southland teams. A win there would mean this Costa team is a real threat to win the Bay League.
Los Angeles Chargers lineman Trey Pipkins III (pictured) and Zion Johnson taking part in the pregame con toss. Photo by Ray Vidal
Chargers begin Jim Harbaugh era with a win
Start spreading the news: Justin Herbert finally has some real help.
He has a real coach and real running backs and a franchise that finally knows what it has in Herbert: the best young quarterback in the NFL.
The Chargers have made the changes necessary to put him in a position to win, not just pile up dazzling statistics as he did in his first four years when he set all the records for a quarterbacks’ first several years — but couldn’t deliver a single playoff win because of the ineptitude of former Coach Brandon Staley.
All the changes mean the Chargers prize quarterback doesn’t have to do it all by himself any more, doesn’t have to make all the plays in crunch time.
At the start of his fifth season, he has coach Jim Harbaugh – a former college and pro quarterback known as the ultimate quarterback whisperer – calling the shots instead of Staley, a defensive whiz but an offensive doofus.
Sunday afternoon’s 22-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders was a case study of the new Chargers approach. When it came to crunch time, the Chargers had the tougher defense and the more versatile offense.
The key play late in the game was a 61-yard ramble by running back J.K Dobbins, a bruiser who is exactly the kind of tough-yardage back the Chargers have long needed but never had. Instead of having to produce a miracle every week, all Herbert had to do this time was hand the ball off and watch his running back take off.
And the more effective the running game is, the more effective Herbert’s passing game will be because it won’t be so predictable, won’t be the Chargers only weapon.
Prediction: Herbert and the Chargers not only will make the playoffs, but will win a couple of post-season games before losing 28-27 to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Final.
The Chiefs will then go on to win their third straight Super Bowl behind Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback in the league, Travis Kelce, the best tight end in the league, and Taylor Swift, the best girlfriend in the league.
Then they can all get ready for a cruel summer – cause the Chargers are coming.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
