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.