Football: OCC can’t tame Tigers, fall 17-2

Joseph Boo

COSTA MESA - Football can be an aesthetically pleasing game. But

Saturday’s season opener between Orange Coast College and visiting

Riverside’s football team was not one of them.

Riverside’s offense was just slightly more effective than the Pirates

were, and that was good enough for a 17-2 victory by the Tigers at LeBard

Stadium in front of 900.

“We needed to score more points,” OCC Coach Mike Taylor simply said.

“This is our first game, and we have to learn from it. We’ll evaluate it

and see what we have to work on.”

OCC quarterback Justin Simons might want some emphasis on the

evaluation its pass protection. Simons was sacked seven times in two

quarters of work. He was taken down four times in the first quarter, sat

out the second, and got sacked three times in the third.

Simons could have surpassed Troy Aikman’s sack-ratio from last week’s

game against the Philadelphia Eagles if he hadn’t started scrambling

effectively in the second half. He ended up with 42 yards on three

scrambles, making him the team’s top rusher by 30 yards.

“I didn’t worry about him,” Taylor said. “He wears pads, he gets hit

in practice, and he’s gotten hit before. He’s a football player, and I

expect him to be tough.”

Riverside certainly tested OCC’s toughness on offense with its sheer

size. The Tigers, who average 284 pounds on the defensive line, took full

advantage against a smaller OCC line which returns only one starter.

Riverside only gave up 124 total yards of offense and minus-21 rushing

yards. OCC had 168 yard against Riverside last year in a 48-15 loss.

“We knew Riverside had a good defense coming into the game,” Taylor

said. “We just need to be able to find a solution to take advantage of

any of their mistakes.”

OCC’s only points came on a third-quarter safety when linebacker

Dustin Davis tackled Riverside’s Marcus Guzman in the end zone. The

Pirates’ defense kept its team in the game, only giving up 271 total

yards of offense and causing two turnovers. Davis recovered a fumble to

squelch Riverside’s opening drive and Angel Andrade intercepted a pass to

stop the Tigers in OCC’s territory.

But Riverside managed its first touchdown because of a costly OCC

mistake. A high snap on a punt attempt by OCC led to a 48-yard loss and

an eventual rushing touchdown by Guzman. Riverside scored another

touchdown on a 42-yard drive in the third quarter.

The Pirates came closest to scoring a touchdown because of a special

teams mistake by Riverside in the third quarter. The Tigers were called

for offside when OCC lined up to punt on fourth- and-10 on its 37-yard

line. Taylor decided to go for it and Simons completed a 9-yard pass to

Jonathan Jackson for the first down.

OCC marched to Riverside’s 1-yard line and went for it again on

fourth-and-one. But the Tigers stuffed OCC in a massive pile at the goal

line.

The Pirates’ defense salvaged a safety out of it on the next play.

OCC came close to scoring on one other drive in the fourth quarter,

but that ended on a lost fumble.

“We’ll come together eventually,” Taylor said. “A lot of it comes from

inexperience. We only have two guys returning and our offensive line is

completely new except for Anthony Knutson. We made a lot of little

mistakes that we have to cut down.”

Simons completed 9 of 23 passes for 91 yards. Nick Higgs played the

second quarter and completed his first five passes for 17 yards. Running

back James Dawkins, a product of Estancia High, caught six passes for 56

yards. Most of those yards came on three shovel passes.