Two-minute drill
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Huntington Beach High football coach Mike Groscost, who was an
assistant at Costa Mesa for six seasons, said Thursday’s 37-14 Oilers
victory over the Mustangs was filled with emotions.
In addition to fond feelings for the Costa Mesa football program,
Groscost was grieving over the death of his father, Bradley, who
passed away days before.
In honor of Bradley Groscost, Mike Groscost declared the game
“Father’s Night” and invited the dads of all his players to watch the
game from the sideline while wearing jerseys with their sons’
numbers.
* Costa Mesa senior running back Tyler Legg, whose season came to
and end with a horrific injury early in the second game of season
against Corona del Mar, attended Friday’s game in a wheelchair.
Legg had surgery on his right ankle and lower leg earlier in the
week and is in for a long rehabilitation. He will be in a wheelchair
for at least six weeks, Mesa Boys Athletic Director Tim Postiff said.
* Estancia senior Ezequiel Villalvazo, whom Coach Brian Barnes has
called the team’s best player, could also be lost for the season,
Barnes said.
Villalvazo sustained a concussion in the season opener against
Corona del Mar and suffered another concussion in the second game
against Huntington Park.
Barnes said it is unclear whether Villalvazo will gain medical
clearance to play again this season.
* Sage Hill School opened the season with three straight wins for
the first time in school history. This group of players has played
together since they were freshmen, and now it is paying off.
“I think our offensive line all started as freshmen and Don Ayres
and I have been together since we were freshmen,” star running back
Keya Manshadi said. “The line knows when I’ll cut back, Don knows
what I’m doing, I know what he’s doing ... When a team plays together
for four years, working hard and playing as a team, this is what
happens.”
The Lightning have high expectations the rest of the season.
“I want to go 10-0,” Manshadi said. “And then I want to go 4-0 in
the playoffs and win a CIF championship.”
* Costa Mesa’s 20-play, 71-yard touchdown drive spanning the third
and fourth quarters against Huntington Beach consumed 9:27 off the
clock.
On the march, the Mustangs converted two fourth-and-three
situations, one fourth-and-inches, a third-and-eight and a
third-and-three. The drive resulted in six of the Mustangs’ nine
first downs.
* Barnes was able to scout a future opponent and also spend some
quality time with his dad, Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes, as the two
sat together at the Costa Mesa-Huntington Beach game Thursday.
The elder Barnes was their to watch the Oilers, a Sunset League
rival, while his son was boning up on the Mustangs, who the Eagles
will play Sept. 30 in the annual Battle for the Bell.
* One-quarter of the revenue produced by the Marina boosters’
50-50 raffle at Friday’s game against Newport Harbor was donated the
relief effort for Hurricane Katrina.
* Brent Weber, the sports director and anchor at the defunct
Orange County Newschannel from 1997-2001 and also a former CNN sports
correspondent, was the public-address announcer for the Huntington
Beach-Costa Mesa game.
* Corona del Mar seniors Matt Loyd, Matt Burgner and Steve
Hillgren, who accounted for 307 of the Sea Kings’ 359 offensive
yards, were all briefly sidelined by leg cramps during Friday’s 25-18
nonleague loss to Troy.
* The Sea Kings had four third-down conversions in eight tries
against the Warriors, including senior quarterback Colin Wigley’s
16-yard touchdown toss to Hillgren on CdM’s opening drive.
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