Steve Virgen Dan Steinau’s momentum-swinging touchdown typified...

Steve Virgen

Dan Steinau’s momentum-swinging touchdown typified the Orange

Coast College football team and was one of three key defensive or

special teams plays that led to the Pirates’ 28-10 nonconference victory over visiting El Camino Saturday. OCC’s win made it the first

time the Bucs have ever beaten the Warriors two seasons in a row.

Prior to the past two years, El Camino had won 13 straight over Coast.

Steinau, a sophomore linebacker who led the team in tackles last

year (118), intercepted quarterback Ron Venters’ pass and ran it back

64 yards for a touchdown, giving the Pirates a 14-7 lead with 11:18

remaining in the first half.

“I was just hoping to catch it,” Steinau said of his interception,

which he tipped and bobbled before cradling it. “The defense did a

good job of blocking. (Along the sideline), I gave a little tip-toe

to it. I just didn’t want to get tackled by the quarterback.”

OCC Coach Mike Taylor said the Pirates completed a successful week

of practice that started with humble moments on Monday, when the team

watched video of its heartbreaking loss to Los Angeles Harbor. The

Bucs (2-1) rallied with 20 points in the fourth quarter, but L.A.

Harbor scored with 12 seconds remaining to win, 40-33.

“It’s huge,” Taylor said of his team’s victory over El Camino

(1-2). “I compared us with El Camino coming into this game because

they were coming off a tough loss (41-34, in overtime), too. Both of

these teams were at a crossroads.”

Taylor also said he enjoyed that the Pirates responded with

intensity from last week’s loss and committed fewer mistakes. OCC had

just one turnover to El Camino’s four, and the Pirates made the most

of three of the Warriors’ miscues.

El Camino is ranked No. 11 in the Southland, while the Pirates are

19, according to the California Community College Football Poll.

Another key play for OCC came during the Pirates’ kickoff to open

the second half. Freshman kicker Bryce Sheridan sent a high ball to

an open portion of the Warriors’ kick return formation, and El

Camino’s Teo Hawkins watched the ball bounce before he tried to fall

on it. But, he was too late, as freshman Jason Brooks pounced on the

ball and put the Pirates at the El Camino 20.

From, there the OCC offense needed just four plays, all rushes, to

get into the end zone. Steven Mahelona scored his first of two

touchdowns, on an 8-yard run with just 2:05 spent in the third

quarter.

Mahelona compiled 71 yards and the two TDs on 13 carries and

served the proper complement to sophomore tailback Niles Mittasch,

who contributed 75 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries. The

Pirates’ running game turned out to be all OCC needed to win.

Freshman quarterback Derek Aspinwall, in his first start for the

Bucs, completed just six passes out of 21 attempts for 61 yards, but

he didn’t have a turnover.

El Camino quarterback Ron Venters, who entered the game as the

Mission Conference’s No. 2 passer, threw three interceptions and was

pulled early in the fourth quarter. Venters’ final interception

eventually resulted in the Pirates’ clinching touchdown. OCC freshman

safety Nick Dominelli intercepted Venters’ pass and returned it 19

yards to El Camino’s 35. And, after a Warriors’ offsides penalty and

a 26-yard run by Mahelona, the Pirates put the game away. Mahelona

cut inside on a tailback pitch and scored from 4 yards out. After

Sheridan’s fourth point-after kick, the Bucs led 28-10.

The OCC defense also pressured Venters, sacking him four times for

28 yards. OCC freshman Ryan Miller, who went to high school in Oregon

with Mittasch and Brooks, recorded three sacks. The Pirates also held

the Warriors to just 64 yards rushing (net). A 22-yard loss came from

an El Camino fumbled snap late in the fourth quarter.