JC Football: Pirates roll to first win

The few. The proud. The rewarded.

First-year Coach Kevin Emerson called the estimated 55 players in uniform for his Orange Coast College football team, about half the number that lined the sideline for the preseason intrasquad scrimmage, warriors Saturday night.

“You are the guys that stuck around and did whatever you had to do to win,” he told his players, for whom there was nearly a point per man in a 49-10 nonconference win over visiting Los Angeles Pierce.

The victory, the first in Emerson’s OCC tenure, allowed the Pirates to avoid the program’s first 0-5 start since 2004. It also created a much-needed celebration, complete with the ceremonial ice-water bath for Emerson.

The game was never in doubt as the hosts, who had led only three times and never by more than seven points in their first four losses, needed fewer than four minutes to seize a 14-0 lead. OCC gained a 28-0 advantage with 9:07 left in the first half, then scored on its first three possessions of the second half to create nearly 20 minutes of glorified garbage time against the Brahmas (1-4).

“We put all three phases [offense, defense and special teams] together for the first time,” said Emerson, whose roster has been pared by the increasingly typical attrition that afflicts struggling teams at the community college level.

The personnel losses include blue-chip left tackle Zach Bateman, freshman Daniel Rodriguez, the season-opening starter at tailback, freshman quarterback Alec Dombkowski, who started the first three games, and sophomore middle linebacker Paco Potter, who entered Saturday tied for the team lead in tackles.

Bateman, Emerson said, turned in his uniform last week, electing to focus on securing his academic standing to land at a Division I program in the spring. The 6-foot-7, 315-pound Estancia High product attended UCLA’s home game Saturday against Oregon, has taken a recruiting visit to Oklahoma State and plans to travel to the Ohio State-Michigan game. Doug Smith, the OCC offensive line coach, said Bateman has 21 scholarship offers from schools that include Alabama.

Rodriguez’s season is over, due to a leg injury, after just 23 carries and two touchdowns, including a 145-yard rushing output in the opener.

Dombkowski quit the team after being benched in the third game and Potter, who did not dress Saturday, said he is likely out at least another three weeks with a sprained knee.

But those who did compete for the Pirates consistently exposed the Brahmas as the team with the insufficient roster.

Freshman quarterback Kody Whitaker completed 20 of 25 passes for 335 yards and five touchdowns to trigger an attack that netted 525 total yards on 69 plays. Whitaker, who amassed 342 yards on a school-record 55 attempts in his starting debut against Fullerton on Sept. 27, now has the seventh- and eighth-best single-game passing yardage games in OCC history.

Whitaker did not attempt a pass after OCC’s final score late in the third quarter against Pierce.

Sophomore receiver Mark Munson, whose 30 receptions coming in led the 37-school Southern California Football Assn, had seven catches for 167 yards and three touchdowns.

Munson produced the Pirates’ first two touchdowns on pass plays of 13 and 44 yards and later connected with Whitaker on a 57-yard touchdown hookup.

Freshman running back Clayton Howard had 95 rushing yards by halftime and finished with 100, including an eight-yard run.

The OCC defense also sparkled, forcing six punts, capping a goal-line stand after the visitors reached the one-yard line, and recovering all three Pierce fumbles, one of which produced a touchdown.

Sophomore outside linebacker Paul Swanson pounced on a fumble in the end zone, created by a blindside sack from sophomore Hugh Tomkins to cap a 21-point first-quarter burst.

Francisco Alvarado recovered a fumble prompted by an Aarone Santos sack in Pierce territory and freshman defensive tackle Matthew Andre fell on a fumble that halted a Brahmas’ drive just outside the red zone.

Special teams also produced. Sophomore kicker Griff Amies, who made all four of his conversion kicks, tapped, then recovered his own onside kick to open the second half. And Spencer Ludin returned a punt 76 yards for an apparent score, only to have the play nullified by an ill-conceived blindside ear-hole block on the punter 25 yards behind the play.

“We’re thin everywhere and we’re vulnerable,” Emerson said. “But I have warriors. These are the guys who chose to stick with it when things weren’t going well.”

Things went better then well Saturday.

“It feels great,” Munson said. “I’m so excited to get this first win. It feels like a big weight off our shoulders. It was a rough stretch those first four games.”

—

Orange Coast 49, Los Angeles Pierce 10

SCORE BY QUARTERS

LAP 0 – 3 – 0 – 7 — 10

OCC 21 – 7 – 21 – 0 — 49

FIRST QUARTER

OCC – Munson 13 pass from Whitaker (Amies kick), 13:39.

OCC – Munson 44 pass from Whitaker (Amies kick), 11:13.

OCC – Swanson fumble recovery in end zone (Amies kick), 1:10.

SECOND QUARTER

OCC – Howard 8 run (Amies kick), 9:07.

LAP – Sutcliffe 26 FG, 6:36.

THIRD QUARTER

OCC – Holman 18 pass from Whitaker (Amies kick), 13:12.

OCC – Munson 57 pass from Whitaker (Shenk kick), 9:08.

OCC – White 9 pass from Whitaker (Shenk kick), 4:04.

FOURTH QUARTER

LAP – Mumford 4 run (Sutcliffe kick), 0:16.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

LAP – Mumford, 7-60, 1 TD.

OCC – Howard, 18-100, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

LAP – Ahmadi , 23-36-0, 203.

OCC – Whitaker, 20-25-0, 335, 5 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

LAP – Shamburger, 9-69.

OCC – Munson, 7-167, 3 TDs.