Pirates hope to set new trend

Steve Virgen

Most of the sophomores on the Orange Coast College football team

remember last year’s game against Los Angeles Harbor. They remember

that the Pirates came off a victory the previous week, but then

dropped a 35-29 loss to the Seahawks at OCC, in a game that included

five turnovers by the Pirates. The game was four days after the Sept.

11 terrorists attacks on America.

OCC gave up 298 passing yards, and after two games the Pirates had

allowed 690 yards through the air and four touchdowns. But, this

year’s Bucs appear to be a different story, and a different team.

OCC Coach Mike Taylor has spent the week motivating his players

for the upcoming game tonight at 7 at L.A. Harbor. He wants the

Pirates to cut down on penalties and he wants his squad to respond to

the challenge of playing on the road.

In addition, Taylor is interested in seeing how the Pirates

respond to its recent Southern California ranking. Coast, which was

unranked in the preseason, shot up to No. 14 in the recent Southern

California Community College Football Poll. Last week, OCC delivered

a dominating effort in a 28-11 victory over visiting East L.A.

“We’re trying to keep everything in perspective,” Taylor said.

“L.A. Harbor is a tougher challenge (than East L.A.). They lost last

week at San Diego Mesa. They’ll be hungry to win. We need to be able

to accept the challenge.”

According to the school’s statistics, OCC sophomore tailback Niles

Mittasch and freshman tailback Steven Mahelona ran for 126 yards and

104, respectively. That’s the first time the Bucs have had two

100-yard rushers in a game since the 1996 season when Chet Walker and

William League combined for 248 against Rancho Santiago.

Taylor expects the Seahawks will be ready for OCC’s running

attack. He also expects sophomore quarterback Jason Kripavicius and a

young Coast receiving group to take advantage of what should be

man-to-man coverage.

Last week, the Pirates had two Kripavicius touchdown passes called

back because of penalties. Both passes were caught in the end zone by

freshman Coleman Menke. Menke caught a 20-yarder, but that was called

back on his offensive pass interference penalty. Then, Menke had an

8-yard TD reception called back because of an illegal procedure

penalty.

“We want to be more efficient on offense,” Taylor said. “Teams are

going to figure us out and load up against the run. I would like to

see Krip to have a little bit of a breakout game. I want to see him

double his yardage from last week. I think, as an offensive group,

we’re confident in that people have to stop us.”

Even though the Seahawks had success through the air last year,

Taylor expects Harbor to run at the OCC defense, which had a standout

showing in the opener last week.

The Pirates recorded two fumble recoveries, two sacks and held

East L.A. to 81 rushing yards (24 came on one touchdown run). At

halftime, when the Bucs led 21-0, the OCC defense allowed just 45 net

yards, including only two rushing yards.

L.A. Harbor still has a vaunted passing game led by returning

sophomore wide receiver Chris Christopher who had five catches for

110 yards and a touchdown last year.