ROCKY VI

Tony Altobelli

Two things came out of Saturday’s 52-35 loss for Orange Coast

against the Palomar Comets, the galaxy’s No. 1 team.

One: Palomar is the best team that OCC will face this year and

probably is the galaxy’s No. 1 team.

Two: OCC hung with them.

Ignore the score. It could easily say 41-35 (without a certain pass

interference call, it probably would have).

In fact, it took a career day from quarterback Greg Cicero (six

touchdowns, 333 yards passing) and wide receiver Nakoa McElrath (eight

catches, 249 yards, 4 TDs) and one poorly thrown flag to finally put the

pesky Pirates away.

Palomar had the Pirates up against the ropes and started throwing

haymakers at them.

OCC took their best shots and still came out swinging against mighty

Palomar.

It was almost like the movie Rocky (the first one). Palomar (aka

Apollo Creed) pummeled Rocky (aka OCC) early with a 20-0 lead.

Remember when Rocky knocked Apollo down with one punch? That was

Flint’s 44-yard touchdown right-hook to Tommy Roberts, bringing life back

to the wobbly challenger.

Now we’re in the musical montage where both sluggers beat the

you-know-what out of each other. The second quarter matches that, with

each team answering the other, touchdown for touchdown.

Each had three TDs in the quarter and OCC was bloody, trailing 34-21,

but still on its feet. Cut me, Mick.

Pirate Coach Mike Taylor (aka Micky) and Palomar coach Mark McElroy

(Apollo’s trainer, whatever his name was. He was in II, III, IV and V.

The bald guy.) managed their teams to a scoreless, but hard-hitting third

quarter.

(Commercial break) Did anyone at the game see Palomar’s mascot

parading around the stands?

The team is called the Comets and some half-rabbit, half-Dr. Seuss

character is cruising around?

We’ll call him Pauly.

Now back to our program. They’ll be no further interruptions.

Now the music’s building....you can feel the momentum on Rocky’s (OCC)

as the fourth quarter begins.

Flint, 15-yard pass to Ben Fredrickson (right hook). Jimmie Banks,

17-yard run (left hook). David Castleton 24-yard touchdown catch

(Apollo’s bleeding internally). OCC cuts the once 20-point lead to 34-28.

OCC’s Rocky-like defense stops back-to-back runs, forcing Palomar to

throw deep just to stay off the canvas.

It’s incomplete! Down goes Apol....wait a minute!

Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago (aka the referee and side judge) help

Apollo off the mat with a pass interference call on an uncatchable ball.

Rocky (OCC) hangs tough against three fighters, but how much can one

man take?

The final decision is in: Apollo Creed (Palomar) wins by a split

decision.

The rematch probably won’t take place until next year, but it will

take that long for both fighters to recover.

ADRIAN!!!! ADRIAN!!! I luv youz.

Obviously the sun got the better of me, but the point I was trying to

make was OCC played Palomar tougher than anyone else this season.

“We got better on fundamentals,” Taylor said. “We were much crisper

today.”

Needless to say, if they would have played like this against Santa

Ana, they win and win big.

Going into Saturday’s games, the Central Division of the Mission

Conference equaled last year’s total wins against the Northern Division

after only three weeks (seven).

“Everyone is pretty even this year,” Taylor said. “It’s not that the

dominant teams are not as good, the other teams have gotten better this

season.”