Palomar smothers Pirates, 43-6

Bryce Alderton

Comets showered over the field at LeBard Stadium Saturday.

No, meteors didn’t fall from the sky, but the visiting Comets from

Palomar College, 6-1, 2-0 in the Mission Conference’s Central

Division, pelted the Orange Coast College offense with their

swarming, attacking defense that produced five turnovers en route to

a 43-6 win over the Bucs, 3-4, 1-1 in the Mission Conference Central

Division.

“There’s no excuses, we got beat as a team,” said OCC Coach Mike

Taylor. “Give (Palomar) credit. They took advantage of our

weaknesses. They’re seventh in the state in defense so I expected

them to be pretty good and they didn’t disappoint me in that regard.”

The Comets intercepted three passes and returned them for 99 yards

and all three resulted in touchdowns either on the return or on

subsequent plays to follow.

Defensive back Shane Lancaster’s 43-yard return with a pick in the

second quarter resulted in a touchdown that staked the Comets to a

23-3 lead.

The final two interceptions resulted in touchdowns just two plays

after the turnover.

Comet quarterback Roman Ybarra hit wide receiver Eddie Sullivan in

stride for a 30-yard score with just under three minutes gone in the

third quarter and a 25-yard interception set up Comet runningback

Alex Thomson’s 1-yard TD run to make it 36-6, Palomar, with 11:28

remaining in the third quarter and the game already out of reach for

the Pirates.

Lancaster sniffed out a fake punt attempt by Coast with Nick

Dominelli taking the snap and trying to hit an open receiver on

fourth-and-3 from the Coast 33, but Lancaster read the play and

grabbed the ball in the air and ran the 43 yards for the touchdown.

“I felt we needed a momentum infusion at that point,” Taylor said

“We weren’t moving the ball. Of course you’d call me a genius if we

executed it.”

Coast’s longest drives were 40 yards twice, both ending in Bryce

Sheridan field goals in the first and second quarters. Aspinwall

completed his longest pass, which was also his first attempt, to

Darrell Walker, a 30-yard completion on the first field-goal drive

and finished seven for 17 with 83 yards and two interceptions.

But Aspinwall faced constant pressure from a Palomar defensive

line that tallied five sacks, two coming from Andrew Paopao. If

Aspinwall wasn’t sacked, he was knocked down a handful of times.

Palomar also blocked a punt for a TD in the first quarter to set

the lead to 13-6.

A convoy of Palomar defenders burst through the OCC line and

simultaneously smothered Pirate kicker Sheridan as he was trying to

kick the ball out of his own end zone. Tate Hess recovered the fumble

in the end zone for the TD.

Niles Mittasch rushed 13 times for 83 yards while Steven Mahelona

(11-64), Russell Oschman (5-26), Sam Weicks (3-11), Matt Pettit (1-4)

and Tim Rebich (1-2) all rushed for positive yards for Coast.

Ken Valbuena relieved Aspinwall for the scoreless fourth quarter

and completed two of five passes for 19 yards. Eight different Coast

receivers caught passes including Coleman Menke (2-28), Walker

(1-30), Danny Valbuena (1-12), David Bare (1-8), Oschman (1-8), Billy

Battle (1-7), Dan Hawkey (1-6) and James Webster (1-3).

Jesse Mahelona sacked Ybarra for an 11-yard loss for Coast’s only

sack.

The Pirates head into next week’s game at Santa Ana at 1 p.m. with

some injuries.

Freshman linebacker Andy Howe suffered a torn ligament in his knee

in practice this week and is expected to have an MRI early in the

week, Taylor said. Freshman Fahad Jahid started in his place.

Right tackle Stephen Herring went down for a few minutes in the

fourth quarter and with the help of two trainers, hobbled off the

field favoring his left leg. Sophomore defensive back has been

nursing a sore hamstring as well, Taylor said.

“We have to juggle kids and give some the opportunity to play,”

Taylor said. “We just got beat as a team today. I wish we were more

competitive but we have to get ready for (Santa Ana).”