Mira Costa Reaches Quarterfinals

Mira Costa High quarterbacks Dennis Falcone and Dalton Crawford got chances to push forward on Saturday at the Beverly Hills Best in the West Passing Tournament, along with junior Christian Rogers. And all three played well throughout a long day as the Mustangs advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament before losing to Palmdale Highland, which eventually won the 19-team tournament held at Beverly Hills High.

The Mustangs were sharp during pool play, taking out perennial L.A. City power Dorsey High, and beat Verbum Dei in the first round of eliminations.

With Falcone and Crawford alternating series, Mira Costa was right with Highland in the quarterfinals, down only two points because of an interception going into their final possession of the 35-minute game. The Bulldogs were able to keep Mira Costa out of the end zone on that possession, though, and then added a final touchdown to close the game.

''For right now, that's how it's been going in practice,'' Coach Don Morrow said. ''Just trying to battle it out. Christian Rogers is our junior, he's there, too. I haven't given up on him or anything like that. But he's coming to us from baseball so he's a little bit behind. He doesn't quite know the offense as well as those other guys do right now. But he threw a couple of beautiful balls in that afternoon round.

''There was a lot of great stuff. This is our first time out, and we have a lot of new guys in positions. You know, we're trying to replace quite a few starters from last season, and a lot of bright spots, a lot of really great stuff. I thought Sam Stekol competed great at receiver. I thought both of the quarterbacks played really well throughout the day. I thought Geoff La Pointe really competed well at outside linebacker.''

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