Daily Pilot Football Player of the Week: Nick Cabico, Clever in

cleats

Barry Faulkner

Intense and introverted, Nick Cabico is hardly the class clown. The

Costa Mesa High junior just plays one on the football field.

Under the spotlight of stadium lights, Cabico communicates to

teammates and appreciative Mustang rooters through actions rather than

words. Indeed, when Cabico has the ball, the results can often be

humorous -- unless you’re wearing an opposing uniform.

“Every time he got the ball in passing league, he had about 25 or 30

guys laughing,” Mesa Coach Jerry Howell said, “because he’d make one or

two moves and have (defenders) falling down.”

In his debut as a varsity starter Thursday, the Daily Pilot Player of

the Week showed his ability to make tacklers look bad was not merely a

summertime thing.

Unleashing a repertoire of moves collected through years of watching

and playing the game -- and honed by regular drilling outside of

scheduled team practices -- Cabico amassed 304 all-purpose yards and

scored three touchdowns to help the Mustangs defeat Saddleback, 48-23.

After returning the opening kickoff 62 yards to set up a field goal,

Cabico rushed for 147 yards on 16 carries, including bursts of 64 and 28

yards and scoring scampers of 4 and 13. He also caught five passes for 74

yards, including an imaginative 36-yard catch and run with a flat pass.

Defensively, in his first game ever at cornerback, he returned his

lone interception 21 yards, broke up a handful of other pass attempts,

and contributed hard-hitting run support.

It was style, as well as substance, however, which has Mustang fans

excited about the former Costa Mesa Pop Warner standout’s prep future.

“He doesn’t have super speed, but he has great quickness,” Howell

said. “He works very hard and he has a lot of instincts and natural

ability. You could pretty much tell he was going to be good in the

seventh grade.”

Cabico, a former Little League baseball star, who has played varsity

baseball his first two years at Mesa, also played varsity football (seven

carries for 29 yards in a playoff game) and basketball as a freshman.

His willingness to seek challenges and gain more specialized coaching

led him to transfer to Mater Dei the first semester of his sophomore

year. He started at tailback and linebacker for the Monarchs’ sophomore

team last season.

He returned to Mesa last spring, however, and, with the unexpected

loss of All-CIF running back C.J. Zuniga who did not return to school for

his senior year, Cabico has provided the defending Pacific Coast League

co-champions another prime-time backfield presence.

“There’s only one thing that he lacks to be the total package,” Howell

said of the 5-foot-8, 140-pounder. “And that is, he’s just a little on

the fragile side. He makes great tackles he blocks hard and he’s very

tough. But he’s just very thin-boned. If he were 20 pounds heavier, he’d

be super recruited. But, then, he’d probably also still be at Mater Dei.”

His Mesa teammates are certainly glad to have him, as much for his

comic relief as his on-field prowess.

When the team met Friday to review the videotape of Thursday’s

Saddleback game, Cabico’s exploits regularly initiated raucous laughter.

“The team cracked up and I laughed right along with them,” said the

humble, but confident Cabico, who often marvels at his own ability to

leave bamboozled defenders in his path.

The aforementioned 36-yard scoring reception was particularly comical.

On the play, he fielded a Patrick Hulliger pass 6 yards beyond the line

of scrimmage at the Saddleback 30-yard line. Turning after the catch to

address the oncoming defense, Cabico quickly studder-stepped in place,

eventually bursting to his left, toward the sideline, as a jelly-legged

defensive back grasped at air.

Cruising down the sideline, one Roadrunner defender came toward him

with a strong angle of pursuit, giving him every opportunity to bring him

down, or, at least, drive Cabico out of bounds around the 10. But Cabico,

filing through his subconscious catalogue of moves, began pointing his

free right hand toward the defender, directing an imaginary downfield

blocker to pick off the last line of defense. Momentarily confused into

brief hesitation by the sleight of hand, the Saddleback defender broke

his stride long enough for Cabico to accelerate right past him, down the

sideline to paydirt.

“I don’t know where I got that one,” said Cabico, who notes he isn’t

trying to show opponents up, but simply help his team win.

“It’s fun to put a move on a guy, but the thing I enjoy most about

playing football is winning,” Cabico said.