Backward motion for Orange Coast

Barry Faulkner

The bright spots were nearly as scarce as shade for the Orange Coast

College football team Saturday afternoon at sun-drenched Los Angeles

Southwest.

For, despite a bright beginning and a flashy finish, the Pirates

dropped a 36-19 nonconference decision to the Cougars, who improved

to 2-0 while dropping OCC to 0-2.

It was the sixth straight defeat for the Pirates, who, according

to Coach Mike Taylor, took a step backward from their season-opening

24-17 loss to Glendale.

“After our [second] play [a 70-yard touchdown run by freshman

tailback Matt Padilla], I thought we’d be taking a step forward,”

Taylor said. “But I’d have to say there was regression today.”

The Pirates fumbled four quarterback-center exchanges, losing all

four in their own territory, which led to 19 points for the hosts.

The visitors also muffed a punt that Southwest recovered on the

Pirates’ 18, then pounded in for another touchdown that made it 29-7

with 11:36 left in the game.

Orange Coast, which had possessions of 23, 12, 18 and 16 seconds,

averaged a mere 97 seconds on its 13 possessions, giving away field

position, momentum, and, ultimately, its chance at victory.

“There’s no excuse for the [fumbled] center snaps,” said Taylor,

who alternated quarterbacks Chad Schmigel and Kyle Basanez, the

latter combining with sophomore center Ricky Mercado for three of the

mishandled exchanges.

The Pirates shored up problems with long snaps in the kicking game

that plagued them against Glendale. But OCC was flagged twice for

hitting the Southwest punter, one such foul prolonging a drive that

ended in a touchdown. OCC also had one kickoff sail out of bounds,

had one punt travel just 7 yards, and committed the aforementioned

muff.

There were, however, sporadic highlights for the OCC offense, as

Padilla collected 124 rushing yards on 16 carries and Basanez, coming

off the bench after starting the opener, connected with sophomore

receiver Brian Johnson for gains of 25 and 75 yards, the latter a

touchdown with 17 seconds left to help pad Coast’s largely misleading

265-206 advantage in total offense.

Padilla, whose scoring burst saw him slash up the middle, then

bounce left and outrun the pursuit, had only one other run of more

than 8 yards (a 14-yard pickup). His triple-digit rushing output was

the first for a Pirate since Week 5 of last season, when Josh Black

ran for 105 yards in a 36-6 win over Santa Ana.

Adam Kleckner followed Padilla’s sprint to paydirt with a

conversion kick to give OCC its only lead just more than two minutes

into the contest.

Southwest, which rushed for 280 yards in its season-opening win,

also stuck to the ground Saturday, utilizing eight ball carriers in

its double-tight-end attack that most often featured a wingback and

an I-formation. The Cougars, whom the Pirates topped, 20-0, last

season, cashed in a 49-yard kickoff return after OCC’s opening

touchdown with a 46-yard field goal by Robert Munez.

Munez added a 28-yard field goal after OCC’s first fumble to pull

the hosts within one, then toed his third field goal from 35 yards

out to give the hosts a 9-7 advantage.

On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, Nicholas Partner fell

on an OCC fumble at the Pirates’ 14-yard line. Three plays later,

250-pound fullback Timothy Moore plowed in from the 1 and Munez’s PAT

made it 16-7.

OCC fumbled away the first possession of the second half and Chris

Singleton, who paced the winners with 84 yards on 18 carries, cashed

it in with a 9-yard touchdown run to make it 22-7 with 9:22 left in

the third period.

After an exchange of punts -- an overworked OCC defense managed to

keep the Pirates in the game into the fourth quarter -- the Cougars

fumbled a snap of their own to provide a glimmer of opportunity. But

Southwest managed to recover on its own 18-yard line.

A roughing-the-kicker penalty prolonged the same Southwest

possession, then, four plays later, freshman Robby Coveney mishandled

a running attempt to haul in a punt and Southwest recovered.

Two plays later, JaVuan Lewis swept around the right side for a

15-yard TD that all but cemented the victory.

Three personal-foul penalties helped OCC score its second

touchdown, a 2-yard Robert Aoki run set up by a 25-yard

Basanez-to-Johnson aerial connection the play before.

Basanez, who might have gained a slight edge over Schmigel in the

quarterback battle, found Johnson running free behind the secondary

on the second play of OCC’s next possession to cap the scoring.

OCC sophomore outside linebacker Joe Mitchell, a second-team

All-Mission Conference (American Division) performer as a freshman,

injured his left ankle in the second quarter and did not return. The

ankle was placed in an air cast and Taylor said it may be a

recurrence of a high school injury that required surgery.