Northwood Passes Costa Mesa

Irvine Northwood High, a second-year varsity football program, began Pacific Coast League play Thursday by beating Costa Mesa, 31-6, at Irvine High, but the Timberwolves’ domination wasn’t the main topic after the game.

Costa Mesa Coach Dave Perkins rushed across the field after the game and lashed out at Northwood coaches.

Perkins, whose program has had to deal with the death of player Matt Colby, was upset because, he said, Northwood’s final touchdown came on an illegal play.

Perkins said wide receiver Dave Anderson of Northwood (6-0 overall) came off the sideline and never entered the huddle. Costa Mesa was caught in a blitz and Anderson was left open for a 43-yard scoring pass from Dan Tomcheck.

“Why are they throwing?” Perkins said. “[Northwood Coach Rick Curtis] has a good football team and they beat us fair and square. But he showed no class and no compassion after what we have been through.”

Costa Mesa (4-2, 0-1) was forced to punt seven times and turned the ball over on downs two other times.

Kyle Keating rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns in 20 carries for Northwood, which went winless in league last season.

“That’s not true,” Curtis said about bringing Anderson onto the field illegally. “We would never do that.

“The game was over, we were just trying to run out the clock. At that point we were just trying to get the game over, but they blitzed everybody and that is what we teach our players to do.”