La Habra football comes up short against tough opponent Mira Costa

LA HABRA — La Habra football coach Frank Mazzotta knew his Highlanders would likely face their toughest challenge of the season to date when they took the field against Mira Costa in a nonleague game Friday at La Habra High School.

The longtime Highlanders coach was spot one.

The Highlanders, who are ranked No.13 in Orange County, scored a touchdown with 23 seconds left in the game but the 2-point conversion attempt to tie the score was unsuccessful and the Mustangs came away with a 35-33 victory.

After the Mustangs (3-0) took a 35-27 lead on a 5-yard touchdown run from Luke Meeker, the Highlanders took over on the ensuing drive from the La Habra 35 with three-minutes, 11 seconds remaining.

A 16-yard run from Kevika Mata’Utia-Martinez gave the Highlanders (3-1) a first-and-goal from the 1 and quarterback D.J. Mitchell scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run on the next play to get La Habra to within 2.

But Mitchell’s pass on the 2-point conversion attempt was intercepted.

“They’re always well coached,” Mazzotta said. “They’re always prepared. And they’ve got really good players. They are a big physical team.”

While the outcome was decided on the final play, Mazzotta said his team’s first defeat of the season came down lack of execution earlier in the game, particularly in the fourth quarter.

Mata’Utia-Martinez scored on a 3-yard run on La Habra’s first drive of the second half gave the Highlanders a 27-21 lead.

The score was set up on an interception from Noah Barajas.

But from there, the Highlanders’ remaining possessions resulted in a punt, a turnover on downs and then two more punts before the final scoring drive at the end of the game.

The Highlanders uncharacteristically had back-to-back three-and-out drives in the fourth quarter with five incompletions between both drives.

Mazzotta said there were also some missed assignments on the offensive line.

“It’s football and you need all 11,” Mazzotta said. “We’ve got to keep working. It’s game four. There’s a lot of football ahead. The kids are resilient and I think they’ll come back better than ever.”

Late in the first half, La Habra executed the play usually only seen in college and the pros.

With eight seconds left and no timeouts, the Highlanders faced first-and-goal from the 2, when Mitchell rolled out to his right, broke one tackle, then another and lobbed a pass to Aaron Castro who managed to drag his toes to stay inbounds along the right sideline in the endzone.

The touchdown kept the Highlanders to within a point at the half.

The Mustangs avenged their 27-24 defeat against the Highlanders, which came in the opening round of the 2024 CIF SS Division 3 playoffs.

“It’s a beautiful place to play,” Mira Costa coach Don Morrow said. “We were really honored to come down and wanted to give a good account of ourselves. Things kind of went south for a little bit in that third period, and then I was so proud of the way the boys hung in there and played the fourth quarter.”