Brotherly love: Trell and Dennis Smith lead Los Amigos past Costa Mesa
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The brother-to-brother passing attack of Los Amigos’ Trell and Dennis Smith, buttressed by stellar line play and Alexis Marcelo-Chamu’s adventurous inside-outside running, connected for two long, vital touchdowns — and nearly a third — in a 28-21 nonleague triumph Friday at Costa Mesa that shouldn’t have been so close.
Trell Smith hit his brother nine times, all of his completions on 14 throws, for 138 yards and two go-ahead scores, and Los Amigos (1-1) held on to win two weeks after fumbling away a late lead in a crushing opening-game defeat to Playa del Rey St. Bernard.
The Smith brothers had a blast.
“It’s honestly an opportunity that God has given me ...” said Trell Smith, a junior in his second campaign running the Lobos’ offense. “I know me and my brother have the best connection on the field. Better than anybody. I’ve known him all my life, so I know what he would like. I know what kind of ball he would want, and I just got to put it out there, and he goes up and gets it.”
Dennis Smith, a senior receiver and cornerback deprived of all but one game last year, with no catches, by injury following the sit-out period after transferring from Villa Park, said playing with Trell was living a “dream.”
“I’ve always played up [a level in youth football], so I never had a chance to play with him as a kid,” he said. “But playing with him in high school [is something] I’ve always dreamed about. It feels so great catching touchdowns by my little brother. It’s unbelievable.”
Dennis Smith caught four balls for 42 yards in the 20-14 loss to St. Bernard, not nearly enough for Melo Guess’ liking, and the Lobos’ head coach took the blame for that.
“Coming in, I didn’t do my job getting these dudes together, getting this dude touches, because we got to go [to him],” Guess said. “It’s my job as the head coach and [offensive coordinator to] make sure I’m putting my boys in a position to be successful. I failed them Week 0. It was my job to make sure I didn’t fail tonight in the same way, and I thought, man, we [took advantage of] him and his brother and the way they push each other.
“I told him: Once he bought in, he’s going to be the best player, not just at Los Amigos, but in this area. And I thought he showed tonight.”
Dennis Smith came up huge three times, with a red-zone interception leading to a 29-yard, last-play-of-the-first-half touchdown for a 13-7 advantage, and then racing past Costa Mesa’s secondary to run his brother’s bomb for a 50-yard score and 21-14 lead. The latter came one play from scrimmage after the Mustangs went ahead on a 48-yard, slant-route touchdown from Matthew Barrientes to Vance Kirby.
He should have had one more, to nail down the win with about two and a half minutes to go, but watched Trell’s 38-yard toss fall between his arms.
“That was on me,” Dennis Smith said. “That’s the one I’m thinking about, my third one. I literally said I was going to score three today.”
Marcelo-Chamu provided the foundation, following the Lobos’ big, physical line for 173 rushing yards — another 25 yards was erased by a holding penalty — and a 32-yard touchdown that provided a 14-point lead five and a half minutes into the fourth quarter. His 32-yard kickoff return to midfield set up the Trell-to-Dennis bomb.
“That kid, I don’t think he took a play off,” Guess said. “He’s on every special team, and he’s carrying the rock, carrying the load, defense, punt, punt return, kickoff, kick return. I love that kid to death.”
Costa Mesa (1-2) started strong, going ahead on Barrientes’ fourth completion on an efficient opening drive, a 17-yard, end-zone pass to Ziggy Babovic — the Lobos responded with a nearly seven-minute drive, pulling even on Trell Smith’s 7-yard, fourth-down push — but it struggled to get its powerful run game going. The Mustangs managed just 17 first-half rushing yards and 70 for the game, nearly half of that on three gains.
Star running back Gavin Garza, who came in needing 72 rushing yards to reach 3,500 for his career, was held to a career-low 37 on a dozen carries, just the seventh time in 26 varsity games he’s not surpassed 100 yards.
“The game plan was to get Gavin outside and make them choose,” Mustangs head coach Gary Gonzalez said. “That’s a physical football team, and they’re pretty good ... They had a good game plan, and they executed, and we didn’t execute ours.”
Barrientes threw for 148 yards and two scores, adding 33 rushing yards, but was intercepted twice, the last a Kevin Velez pick with just under two minutes left to secure Los Amigos’ victory. He completed nine of his first 14 throws through Vance Kirby’s slant touchdown 13 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Nonleague
Los Amigos 28, Costa Mesa 21
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Los Amigos 7 - 6 - 0 - 15 — 28
Costa Mesa 7 - 0 - 0 - 14 — 21
FIRST QUARTER
CM — Babovic 17 pass from Barrientes (Moreno kick), 7:38.
LA — T. Smith 7 run (Evaristo kick), 0:50.
SECOND QUARTER
LA — D. Smith 29 pass from T. Smith (kick failed), 0:00.
THIRD QUARTER
None.
FOURTH QUARTER
CM — Kirby 48 pass from Barrientes (Moreno kick), 11:47.
LA — D. Smith 50 pass from T. Smith (Marcelo-Chamu run), 11:31.
LA — Marcelo-Chamu 32 run (Evaristo kick), 7:24.
CM — Garza 10 run (Moreno kick), 3:07.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
LA — Marcelo-Chamu, 28-173, 1 TD; T. Smith, 7-15, 1 TD; D. Smith, 1-0; Flores, 1-(-4); Team 2-(-29).
CM — Garza, 12-37, 1 TD; Barrientes, 6-33.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
LA — T. Smith, 9-14-1, 138, 2 TDs.
CM — Barrientes, 11-23-2, 148, 2 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
LA — D. Smith, 9-138, 2 TDs.
CM — Kirby, 2-57, 1 TD; Babovic, 2-29, 1 TD; R. Sanchez, 2-29; Tavakoli, 3-21; Fetalaiga, 1-9; Shafiyoon, 1-7.
