Mustangs left behind

COSTA MESA — On Costa Mesa High’s home opener Thursday night, more than the opposition upstaged the football team.

Rival Estancia had its back-to-school night. Finding a parking spot for Jim Scott Stadium proved to be tough, even for the home side’s coach.

“It was really hard to find parking wasn’t it?” Costa Mesa Coach Jeremy Osso said. “It was hard for me. I had to park over yonder.”

Santa Ana parked its bus on time and ran running back Robert Peralta right through the Mustangs for a 41-9 nonleague victory.

Peralta recorded a career day with 251 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries. All of this on a sprained left ankle.

He spoiled the Mustangs’ debut at the new $9.5 million state-of-the-art facility.

Costa Mesa is reeling with a 0-4 start to the season. Santa Ana is off to 3-0, the best in Coach Scott Daniels’ eight years.

Before kickoff, Daniels wasn’t sure his junior running back would carry the load. Starting on Saturday, Peralta missed three straight practices. Wednesday was the first time he took the field.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Daniels said. “The doctors gave him the OK to go. We thought, ‘Maybe we’ll give him 10 touches.’ ”

Peralta ran it a dozen times for 79 yards and one touchdown, giving the Saints a 14-3 lead at halftime.

Daniels asked Peralta how his ankle was holding up.

“He said he was fine,” Daniels said, “so we just kept running him. He was on fire.”

On the second play from scrimmage, Peralta showed Daniels how well he was feeling.

He raced to the left and toward Santa Ana’s sideline, so Daniels could see him score on a 53-yard run.

Peralta added two huge runs to his night, a 36-yarder late in the third quarter setting up one of kicker Luis Diaz’s two field goals.

In the fourth, Peralta unleashed the longest, a 56-yard rumble into the end zone.

This one took more out of the 5-foot-9, 160-pounder. He went left, cut it back inside, and broke free from would-be tacklers, one trying to force a fumble inside the 10.

“In my head, I was just like, ‘I got to get a touchdown. I got to get a touchdown,’ ” Peralta said. “I was holding on and I was dragging a couple of guys. It was amazing.”

More astonishing was Santa Ana outrushing Costa Mesa, 337-29.

The inability to run the ball affected Costa Mesa’s passing game, which was already hurting with junior starting quarterback Todd Davis out with a mild concussion suffered last week.

Brian Waldron started and was under constant pressure. Five times the Saints sacked the junior. Four times the Mustangs turned the ball over, three of those led to Santa Ana touchdowns.

With Peralta out of the game late, fourth-string running back Kenny Martinez carried the ball for the first time.

Fifty-three yards later, Osso saw the junior in the end zone.

“It’s been our M.O. all year, [giving up] big plays,” said Osso, whose team has been outscored, 173-19. “I don’t think they were, let me do my math real quick, 32 points better than us.

“When you lose, it becomes contagious. We got to turn it around.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].