GARDEN GROVE — Costa Mesa football coach Gary Gonzalez was hoping for a complete game to help turn the Mustangs’ fortunes around.
He got the performance he sought from his team as Andrew Waiss contributed four total touchdowns while the defense collected five turnovers in a 35-20 road win over Bolsa Grande Thursday night.
Costa Mesa (5-3, 1-2) snapped a two-game losing streak and collected its first Tango League win.
“In every season there’s peaks and valleys and you know what, we’re on the upswing and I’m so proud of our boys,” Gonzalez said. “We’re just excited to get back in the win column and we’re looking forward to La Quinta.”
Waiss threw a pair of TD passes and ran for two scores as well, displaying his dual-threat ability.
The Mustangs opened the scoring with a 69-yard pass from Waiss to Govern Nguyen.
Costa Mesa went up 14-0 before the Matadors (4-4, 2-1) got on the board.
Bolsa Grande nearly squandered that scoring opportunity after Rudy Carrillo’s 17-yard run gave them the ball at the Costa Mesa 15.
Matadors QB Tank Britton misfired on three straight attempts but a penalty on his fourth-down throw gave Bolsa a fresh set of downs. Anthony Bell’s 8-yard run made it 14-7 with 6:05 left in the second quarter.
Waiss capped the Mustangs next scoring drive with a 13-yard scramble after a bobbled shotgun snap.
“He’s a very good football player who is able to change the dynamics of a game, overall his performance was great tonight and he really led this team tonight,” Gonzalez said of Waiss.
Britton was sacked hard on the second-to-last-play of the first half and was replaced by Michael Nguyen.
Bolsa Grande coach Michael Acosta said Britton was ruled out of the game by the officials and was not allowed to return.
“The referee said he had to be cleared by a doctor, but according to the EMT and the trainer for the other team, he should’ve been allowed to return to the game because he wasn’t showing signs of a concussion.”
Nguyen was able to lead a pair of scoring drives, both were touchdown passes to Jacob Ortiz, but he also threw a pair of interceptions and had a costly fumble on a handoff exchange on the first possession of the third quarter.
“That was a big play, Gonzalez said. “Ultimately it’s important to capitalize on those big plays, we call them swing plays.”
“We had to play mistake-free and we didn’t exactly play mistake-free,” Acosta said.
Gonzalez is looking forward to a chance at redemption against La Quinta next week.
“Last year they beat us pretty soundly, 38-6, we felt that we played a bad game and we were circling this one on the calendar for some redemption,” he said. “They’re a great football team but I feel like it’s going to come down to the defense. We have to stop their offense in order for us to win.”
