Costa Mesa Has Luxury of Two-Way Player : Football: The Mustangs’ Bryan Luxembourger does everything but drive the bus for his team.

COSTA MESA —  It all goes back to a Friday night two weeks ago when Costa Mesa pulled off one of this season’s more remarkable victories.

Trailing by 11 with about 10 minutes to play, the Mustangs tied the score--and then won, 39-36--on two field goals in the final 37 seconds. Adding to the drama, the kicker had twice earlier missed extra point attempts.

Bryan Luxembourger is that kicker. And never had he been in a more high-profile situation. Not as a left guard, where you are stuck in anonymity. Not at inside linebacker, where you never really get the credit you deserve.

But Luxembourger, sore ankle and all--he twisted it after an interception return earlier in the game that set up a touchdown--drilled the ball between the goalposts, from 26 yards with 37 seconds left, and from 28 yards with 17 seconds to go.

“It was the most exciting game I’ve ever had,” said Luxembourger, a three-year starter on defense. “Going home on the bus I had that feeling that I didn’t remember having since my freshman year, finally winning again. It’s hard to go through the program, hell week, all the hard work, just to go through a 3-7 season. It’s really frustrating to go through that every year.”

That’s not the case this season. After beating Laguna Hills, a perennial Pacific Coast League power, the Mustangs followed with a 13-3 victory over defending co-champion and unbeaten Trabuco Hills. Costa Mesa is 5-2-1, 3-0 in league and in the driver’s seat to win the school’s first outright league championship, only its third title in 32 years and first since 1978.

And the guy who has to get some of the credit is the athlete who usually gets so little.

“I don’t think there’s anyone as important to any team that’s as important as Lux is to our team on both sides of the ball,” second-year Costa Mesa Coach Myron Miller said. “Bryan is the go-to guy (we run behind) on offense when we need a yard and our go-to guy on defense. There may be a better offensive player and a better defensive player, but no one plays both sides of the ball was well as he does.”

The Mustangs have plenty of players who line up on both sides of the ball. Luxembourger is one of seven. He also kicks off (and is the wedge-buster on the coverage), kicks field goals and extra points, and is on both punt teams (as a lineman). He comes off the field only when the opposing team kicks off.

Miller, who has been coaching 25 years, called the victory over Laguna Hills the greatest of his career. Luxembourger, a two-year, two-way starter, agreed. And for good reason.

It finally helped Costa Mesa turn a page on their mostly forgettable past. Twice this season Costa Mesa had fourth-quarter leads, only to watch one turn into a loss and the other a tie, because they couldn’t make the crucial play. They could have avoided the other loss by making a two-point conversion but fumbled the snap. It, too, was in the fourth quarter.

“There’s been a lot of frustration,” said Luxembourger, whose first varsity appearance came in a playoff game as a freshman on special teams. “It’s kind of weird. Last year we were struggling to get into (the playoffs), and now we already have an ‘X’ by our name--we’re already in. It’s hard to comprehend. I’m not used to it. We’ve always struggled to get in, but we’ve already beaten the two top teams. Now we just have two more teams and it’s not going to be easy, no matter what Dwayne says.”

“Dwayne” is teammate Dwayne Crenshaw, who said following the victory over Trabuco Hills, “We own Century. We own Estancia.” Century and Estancia are Costa Mesa’s next two opponents. Century shared the title with Trabuco Hills last year and visits Costa Mesa at Newport Harbor High on Friday.

What the Centurions will contend with is a team with just 22 players who have a mighty resolve to win. And a 6-foot-1 1/2, 215-pound linebacker who is one of the county’s most punishing.

“He’s a hitter,” Miller said. “He can be blocked sometimes and faked out like any high school kid, but when he hits people, he rocks ‘em. . . . When you hear a loud sound on the football field, it’s usually Lux hitting somebody.”

It is a sound relished by Luxembourger, who puts a lot of emphasis on the game’s mental approach and admits to having a rough-and-tumble attitude when he steps on the field.

“When you’re going to get a good hit, and you hear that pop, and in the stands you can hear the roar of the crowd, it really gets you going,” Luxembourger said. “It brings up your adrenaline.”

His motivation?

“Knowing you beat (the opponent) on that play, knowing that you might have hurt him on that play, that it takes him a little longer than normal to get up. You have to have that attitude or you’ll get beaten.”

Miller related a story about Luxembourger, who pinched a nerve while making a tackle against Ocean View.

“He knocked two quarterbacks out of the Ocean View game. I told him, ‘Just tackle the people: I need you back every week. You don’t have to kill them, just tackle them.’ I told him while he was out, ‘From now on, make the tackle, but I want you to survive it; we can’t trade players. I don’t have someone else to put in.’ He didn’t listen to me, though.”

Sometimes, the anonymous must act on their own.

CENTURY VS. COSTA MESA

Featured Game

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: Newport Harbor High

Records: Century (3-4-1, 2-1); Costa Mesa (5-2-1, 3-0)

Rankings: Century is unranked; Costa Mesa is ranked seventh in Division VIII.

Noteworthy: Century came out of nowhere to win the Pacific Coast League title last year; Costa Mesa is doing the same this year.