Mustangs seek first victory

About the only fight Coach Jeremy Osso has seen so far in Costa Mesa High’s football team is after games.

That’s when players gather to sing the school’s fight song.

“I don’t think any high school boy is amped to sing,” said Osso, who almost began humming the fight song before adding it is close to USC’s famous “Fight On.”

That’s where the comparisons with the top-ranked college program end. Costa Mesa is 0-2, closer to 0-3 if it continues to sputter offensively.

Seven points is all the offense has to show. And Osso said Antwon Byrd, the junior running back with the lone touchdown, will be out tonight nursing a hip flexor when the Mustangs host Irvine (2-0) at Orange Coast College at 7.

The nonleague game marks the third straight time Costa Mesa has played at home. The first at OCC ended with a 62-7 loss to Savanna, followed up by a 26-0 loss to Rancho Alamitos at Newport Harbor High.

Maybe it’s time to get away, which they’ll do for two games after tonight. One thing is for sure, the Mustangs haven’t shied away from playing solid teams.

“While we are losing, we’re still getting better. No one gets better playing weak teams,” said Osso, a second-year coach trying to avoid another 0-3 start. “We lost to the Garden Grove League champion and Savanna was the tri-champion in the Orange League. Who’s next?”

Irvine and it’s playing like it will contend for a league title.

The last time the Vaqueros claimed a share of a league crown was in 2003, when in the Sea View. Now they’re striving to enter the Pacific Coast League with momentum.

Beat Costa Mesa, follow that up with a win against another Orange Coast League team, Calvary Chapel, and Irvine will be 4-0. Longtime coach Terry Henigan is just two wins short of matching last year’s win total with six regular-season games left.

Osso likes the sound of that, only if that were the case at Costa Mesa. Getting that first victory is the No. 1 priority. Accomplishing the feat against Irvine will be troublesome without the Mustangs’ top offensive threat in Byrd (199 rushing yards) and sophomore Brian Waldron making his second straight varsity start at quarterback.

Taking the pressure off the 5-foot-8 Waldron lies on how well junior running back Christian Argumedo can perform.

“He’s one of those guys that reads his blocks well,” said Osso of Argumedo, who last week picked up his first carries of the season, finishing with 16 yards on six carries. “Antwon is just so fast. He’s not going to breakaway like Antwon, like for an 80-yard touchdown.

“We’re kind of tweaking the offense a little bit to suit what we have on the field.”

What the Mustangs have is not much in the way of numbers. Last week, 85 offensive total yards, three first downs, zero points. They’re up against a team averaging 31 points per game.

Waldron did his best in his debut, accounting for 52 passing yards and never committing a turnover. But he’s been thrown into the fray after junior Brett Farthing completed one pass for minus one-yard in the season opener and Edison transfer Todd Davis was lost for the season because of what Osso called “paperwork issues” making him ineligible to play as a sophomore.

“We’re not disappointed with having Brian at quarterback,” said Osso, who last year started Cody Waldron, Brian’s older brother, at quarterback. “He’s untested, but he’s an athlete.”

At the end, Waldron will trade in his cadence for a different pitch when he sings the school’s fight song. He will sound better if Costa Mesa wins for the first time.