by Paul Teetor
Mira Costa quarterback Nico De La Cruz dropped back and launched a 50-yard rainbow that seemed to hang in the inky-black, night sky forever before coming back down to earth and into the eager hands of star senior receiver Reese Leonard, who was tackled just short of the goal line.
But everyone who had been following Mira Costa’s joyride through the playoffs for the last month knew what was coming next: a guaranteed touchdown.
And sure enough, fullback Brady Nuthall leaped over the Simi Valley defensive line for a one-yard touchdown run that electrified the crowd, and gave the Mustangs a 7-0 lead less than five minutes into Saturday night’s CIF Division 6 championship game.
On Simi’s next possession, Costa’s defense stopped them cold on a fourth down and five to give the Mustangs great field position. And with fans still streaming into the game – Costa charged $10 for parking, so many fans were driving around looking for street parking – Costa quickly scored yet another touchdown on a 40-yard missile from De La Cruz to Charlie O’Connor.
You could hear the buzz growing in the pumped-up crowd: wow, a 14-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so tough after all. Maybe this Mustang team truly was a team of destiny after overcoming an 0-7 start to win six straight games and reach the CIF Final.
The Pioneers went nowhere in their next possession, as did Costa. But then came what seemed like a turning point that would bust the game wide open: the Simi punt returner muffed the Costa punt, and before he could dive on the loose ball five Mustangs converged on it and recovered the football on the Pioneer 17-yard line.
On the very next play De La Cruz threw a frozen rope to Leonard, who had broken free of the double team Simi Valley threw at him on virtually every play, for a touchdown in the left corner of the endzone.
With the score now an astounding 21-0 and time still left in the first quarter, the talk on the Mustang sideline was how soon the game might move to a running clock, which the referees normally do when a lead reaches 35 points or more. It’s a combination mercy move and time saver.
At the end of the first quarter the stats were overwhelming: Costa had run 12 plays from scrimmage and scored three touchdowns with little signs of resistance from the Pioneers, who had fought their way into this title game with a quarterback sneak for a TD on the last play of their semifinal game the week before.
“They’re just like us,” Mira Costa Coach Don Morrow had warned during the week. “A bunch of scrappers who never give up.”
As the second quarter started, Simi Valley found itself in a situation similar to what it had faced just 10 minutes earlier: a fourth down and five to go for a first down. Again, they went for it but this time Costa could not stop them. After three more plays just short of the goal line, Simi was facing another fourth and goal and made the decision to go for a field goal and at least get something up on the scoreboard.
After the kick was successful to make the score 21-3, everything changed, subtly but decisively. Costa lost the momentum and the sense that they were just going to roll right over this team in front of their crazed home crowd.
Simi Valley, for its part, had announced that they weren’t going down without a serious fight.
They followed up on the field goal with their first touchdown to close the gap, 21-10. But the Mustangs quickly answered, making it 28-10 on a De La Cruz fourth-down touchdown pass to David Burga-Donovan.
Mustang confidence had been restored for the moment.
But the second half of this game, much like the second half of Costa’s season, was separate and distinct from the first half.
The second half of the game really started late in the first half, in terms of psychological impact, with less than two minutes left. That’s when Simi Valley blocked a Costa punt and returned it for a touchdown to make it 28-17 heading into halftime.
“That was obviously huge,” Morrow said of the blocked punt.
Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert agreed.
“We were dead,” Benkert said. “We were hopelessly dead. Then we blocked the kick and life happened.”
It gave the Pioneers hope that they could actually win the game after their horrendous start. Bankert’s halftime pep talk was fueled by equal measures of adrenaline and hope.
It proved to be a powerful combo.
Simi came storming out of the locker room and proceeded to take a 31-28 lead with a pair of touchdowns, setting the stage for a wild, roller coaster fourth quarter.
Mira Costa regained the lead at 35-31 on a 29-yard touchdown pass from De La Cruz to Leonard. But Simi Valley quickly responded with a touchdown with 4:08 left for a 38-35 lead.
That’s when things got really chaotic. On the last possession of regulation, Costa advanced the ball to the Simi Valley 19, then got the benefit of a pass interference penalty to move the ball to the 4-yard line.
With the home crowd in an absolute frenzy – by now there were dozens of Costa fans and alumni on the sidelines, just a few feet from the game, yelling advice and screaming encouragement — three times De La Cruz tried to pass for the game-winning touchdown, and three times the pass fell incomplete.
Faced with a risky, all or nothing choice between one last chance to win the game with a touchdown – and lose if it fails — or go for the tie and try to win it in overtime, Costa chose to go for the tie and take its chances in overtime.
The decision was made easier because the Mustangs had the luxury of a very reliable kicker in Nico DeSisto, who came on to kick the tying field goal and made it 38-38 going into overtime.
The Mustangs had the first possession in overtime, but were stymied by three penalties that moved the ball back to a 4th-and-22. That’s where a prayer of a pass into the end zone went unanswered.
Just as the ball hit the turf on the Mustang’s fourth down try, the lights in the entire stadium went out. It was a surreal moment fitting for the epic nature of a game that had already had every twist and turn imaginable.
Some Pioneer players saw a Costa conspiracy in the darkness.
“The kids are going, ‘Oh, they did it on purpose’” Bankert said. “No, it’s cold,
there’s a conference with the officials, no lights are on.”
The crowd took a few minutes to adjust to the sudden total darkness, but eventually, 20 minutes later power was restored and another play was run.
But rather than derailing Simi Valley, the darkness had given them time to formulate a plan.
“Our kids came up, ‘Coach, when we win it, I’m going to carry you off the field.’ I’m going, ‘Can we focus?” They were so sure we’d win.”
Like it was scripted, on the third play of Simi Valley’s overtime possession, Brice Hawkins took a handoff, ran off tackle, avoided a couple of would-be tacklers and broke free for a 20-yard game-winning touchdown.
Suddenly, abruptly, it was over. The lights were back on but everything went dark all over again for Costa and their fans.
It was hard to accept, but true and undeniable: Mira Costa’s dream season was over without bringing home a CIF title.
No more talk of miracle comebacks, no more fairytales, just cold hard reality: they had just lost the biggest game the Mustangs have played in more than a dozen years.
Mira Costa’s inspiring run to the CIF Division 6 title game had ended in a stunning loss in an overtime thriller by the gut-wrenching score of 44-38.
It was as shocking and unexpected as it was bitter to behold for the standing-room-only crowd that packed Waller Stadium.
But the emotionally and physically exhausted Mustang and Pioneer players displayed great poise and sportsmanship in congratulating each other on a hard-fought game well played.
Afterwards, Coach Morrow was feeling a blend of disappointment in the loss and pride in the fight displayed by his team – both in this game and in coming back from an 0-7 start.
“You try to find the right thing to say to these young guys,” Morrow said. “It’s impossible to come up with the right words. But all the guys …the battle from this group is something that we all can take with us and learn from it. They just never stopped. We mostly practiced well the whole year, even when we were on that losing streak. I think that’s the thing to take with you …the human condition is such that you can find a way.”
Mira Costa finished the season with a 6-8 record, which sounds mediocre, but doesn’t begin to tell the real story of heroism and heartbreak over a nearly four-month season. The six straight victories represent the greatest comeback since Lazarus came back from the dead and the eighth loss is one of the most memorable championship games ever played.
All in all, not bad for a team that didn’t win its first game till the eighth game of the season.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Morrow said before the championship game. “They could have buckled at any time but they never did.” ER
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER
no images were found
