PREP FOOTBALL : Pacific Coast League : Riddell Solves Laguna Beach’s Defense : Costa Mesa Running Back Scores Four Touchdowns in Fight to Finish

Friday night’s Pacific Coast League showdown between Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach high schools couldn’t have had a more appropriate ending.

Artist running back Jonathan Todd, frustrated over the 25th penalty flag that had flown in Laguna Beach’s direction, picked up the flag and heaved it as far as he could toward the Artist bench.

With 43 seconds remaining and Costa Mesa leading, 49-18, the referees didn’t want to take any chances. Tempers were flaring and hits were late, so they decided to stop the contest.

In all, there were 41 penalties for 359 yards in the game, which was played in front of 3,000 on Guyer Field at Laguna Beach. Afterward, things got even uglier.

Laguna Beach Coach Lloyd Cotton ordered his team off the field, foregoing the traditional postgame handshakes. Mustang players taunted the Artists, but no fights broke out.

Cotton then proceeded to rip Costa Mesa Coach Tom Baldwin for what he thought was a blatant attempt to run up the score in the fourth period.

“Coach Tom Baldwin is a low-class individual who tried to run it up on us,” Cotton said. “They kicked our butts, and they had to rub it in.”

Costa Mesa had a 42-6 lead in the fourth quarter, but Laguna Beach scored two touchdowns within two minutes to trim the lead to 42-18.

With about four minutes left, Mustang quarterback Mike Crowe passed 22 yards to tight end Scott Siler for a touchdown that made it 49-18.

“Those two touchdowns scared me,” Baldwin said. “If they scored one more after that, they would have only been down by one (touchdown). Besides, that was my third-string tight end.”

Baldwin’s calculations were a bit off. Had Laguna Beach scored again and added a two-point PAT, the score would have been 42-26. That’s a 16-point cushion.

Still, Baldwin didn’t take too kindly to Cotton’s remarks.

“If they’re such a poor team that they think we have to run the score up, that’s their problem,” he said. “I’ve been in this league for three years and you know how many times that’s happened to me?

“And how can he call me a low-class individual? The game was delayed 10 minutes because he didn’t have anyone to work the chains. Their halftime show ran 10 minutes long. And he has the nerve to call me low-class. Geez, I was coaching before he (Cotton) was even born.”

Lost beneath all of the penalties, the assorted delays and the postgame feuds was an outstanding offensive performance by the Mustangs and senior running back Tyler Riddell.

Riddell, a 5-foot-8, 170-pounder who entered the game as Orange County’s eighth-leading rusher, ran for 247 yards and 4 touchdowns in 16 carries. He also had a two-point conversion.

Riddell scored on runs of 50, 62, 8 and 93 yards to show up Artist running back Todd, who had entered the game as the county’s leading rusher. Todd finished with just 78 yards in 16 carries, as Laguna Beach suffered its first loss of the season after a 6-0 start.

Crowe completed 5 of 8 passes for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns--a 55-yarder to Mike Ritchie in the third quarter and the 22-yarder to Siler in the fourth--to help the Mustangs improve to 2-0 in league and 5-2 overall.

Woodbridge 23, Trabuco Hills 6--David Townsend scored a touchdown and rushed for 105 yards in 21 carries to lead the Warriors past the Mustangs at Irvine High School.

Trabuco Hills (0-2, 3-4) took the lead when Ray Walters returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown.

Woodbridge (1-1, 6-1) tied the score at 6-6 when quarterback Eric Brougher connected with Dax Jordan on a five-yard scoring pass with 18 seconds left in the half.

The Warriors went ahead, 13-6, when the ball was snapped over the head of the Mustang punter and Danny Seymour recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.

Woodbridge increased its lead to 20-7 on Townsend’s score from three yards out with 6:19 remaining.

Keith Boothroy added a 26-yard field goal with 2:44 left for the final score.

Woodbridge was penalized 10 times for 100 yards, and Trabuco Hills was called for 11 penalties for 81 yards.