OCC, Glendale reunite
Bryce Alderton
As with any season opener, Orange Coast College football coach Mike
Taylor knows there will be glitches, but also room for growth as a
season unfolds in front of him, the staff and the players.
OCC opens at Glendale at 1 p.m. today at Glendale High -- the
first meeting between the teams since 1962 -- and thus, the dawning
of another community college season.
“We need to prepare for anything special,” Taylor said. “We need
to minimize the confusion, execute defensively and pay attention to
special teams. That is always the equalizer.”
Both teams exchanged film late last week from preseason
scrimmages, but Taylor said even studying that footage cannot prepare
a team fully for what it faces at kickoff.
“It’s a little bit of a reach,” Taylor said of dealing with film
that is “not the quality you would like.”
“But we all have to deal with it. We are just trying to get better
Saturday.”
Coast comes off a 4-6 season that saw it rank fifth out of 12
Mission Conference Central Division teams in total defense.
This season, Coast finds itself in the newly formed American
Division of the reconfigured Mission Conference. The state’s
Commission on Athletics voted earlier this year to divide the 12
conference teams into the American and National divisions to create
balance among its members.
The Pirates return three starters on defense, among them 6-foot-2,
295-pound defensive tackle Jesse Mahelona, a first-team all-state
selection a year ago. Mahelona, who has received scholarship offers
from Arizona State, UCLA, Oregon, Washington and Oklahoma -- which he
visited last weekend -- led Coast with nine tackles for a loss and
tied end Ryan Miller for the team lead with six sacks.
“I’m excited to see him turn it loose,” Taylor said.
Miller, a 6-1, 245-pound sophomore, will not play today after he
strained the medial collateral ligament in his knee earlier this
week. Freshman Justin Williams, a 6-0, 235-pound freshman out of
Mission Viejo High, gets the nod in Miller’s spot, a position, Taylor
said, will have plenty of competition.
Miller might miss next week’s home opener against Los Angeles
Southwest, Taylor added.
“[Williams] is very quick, very tenacious and gets an opportunity
to start his first college game,” Taylor said. “Miller may have
trouble getting his job back.”
Nick Moghaddam, a 6-4, 260-pound sophomore defensive tackle out of
Newport Harbor High, gets the nod between Williams and Mahelona up
front.
Coast’s offense also returns three starters from 2002, two
offensive linemen -- guard Adrian Mejia and center Emil West -- and a
wide receiver -- Coleman Menke.
Taylor was impressed with the offensive sets after Coast’s second
intrasquad scrimmage Saturday and added that improvement has been
steady throughout the week.
“I expect our offense to grow more [today],” Taylor said. The
offense averaged 260.3 yards per game a year ago, good for 10th place
in the conference. Coast ranked last in the conference in passing,
tallying only five touchdowns and averaging 109.5 yards through the
air in 2002.
“I would love to see our offense score a lot of points, because
when you do, you have a better chance of winning,” Taylor said.
John Cicuto, Glendale’s head coach entering his 15th year, was
impressed with what he saw from OCC’s scrimmages.
“They are by far the best team we are going to play,” Cicuto said.
“They are big and physical with some super defensive players.”
Glendale, 4-6 a year ago in the Western States Conference, returns
17 players from 2002, but just three starters (two on offense) are
back. Ricky Valenzuela, a guard on the Vaquero offensive line, is the
son of former Cy Young award winner Fernando Valenzuela.
Athletic genes from father to son flow at Orange Coast, as well.
Freshman Beau Budde, the son of former NFL offensive lineman Brad
Budde, gets the nod at quarterback with sophomore Kelika Higa
providing explosiveness as the backup.
“They are both taking a lot of [repetitions] and each brings
different things to the table,” Taylor said.
The starting tailback for today’s opener is freshman Josh Black,
who will attempt to fill the hole left by Niles Mittasch, a
first-team all-state pick last year when he led Coast with 92.9
rushing yards per game and amassed 1,133 all-purpose yards for the
season. Freshman Chris Vega has also impressed coaches in practice
and should see ample playing time.
Freshman Jimmy Niutapuai, a 6-0, 270-pound fullback out of
Huntington Beach High, will start and get relief from freshman Tim
Ioane, a 6-0, 230-pounder out of Tustin High. Ioane missed time this
week due to a hamstring injury.
The season is starting a week earlier to accommodate a playoff
format that will feature four teams each from Southern and Northern
California sections vying for a spot in a state championship game in
Bakersfield in mid-December.
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