The Loara Saxons will square off against the Costa Mesa Mustangs at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Loara is looking for their season's first victory.
Last Friday, Loara was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 29-24 to Santiago.
Despite the defeat, Loara had strong showings from Aiden Gomez, who threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes, and Jorge Rodriguez, who picked up 86 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Diego Garcia was in the mix as well, providing Loara with a touchdown.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Costa Mesa). They managed a 48-43 win over La Quinta on Friday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Mustangs.
Costa Mesa's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Gavin Garza, who rushed for 227 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 11.9 yards per carry, and also picked up 30 receiving yards. The dominant performance gave Garza a new career-high in rushing yards. Andrew Waiss was another key player, throwing for 171 yards and two touchdowns.
Costa Mesa was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 356 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Costa Mesa wouldn't let La Quinta keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Costa Mesa can thank Govern Nguyen and Ryan Lowry for forcing both of them.
Loara's loss dropped their record down to 0-9. As for Costa Mesa, their win bumped their record up to 6-3.
Things could have been worse for Loara, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 22-7 loss to Costa Mesa when the teams last played back in August of 2023. Can Loara avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
