Pirates nearly pull off upset over Gauchos

COSTA MESA — Saddleback College football coach Mark McElroy said his staff has a “PT count” heading into every game. The plan is to get sophomore tailback PT Gates 25-30 touches and, invariably, he will make them count.

Gates, in fact, needed 32 touches in Saturday’s Mission Conference National Division game against host Orange Coast to find the end zone. But the last one resulted in a 23-17 overtime victory for the Gauchos (7-0, 2-0 in the division), ranked No. 1 in Southern California and No. 2 in the nation.

Gates, who led the 12-team Mission Conference in scoring with 66 points coming in, caught a swing pass in the right flat, spun toward the goal line and reached the ball over the plane for a nine-yard touchdown in the latter half of the first overtime.

OCC (5-2, 0-2), ranked No. 9 in Southern California, which returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and led, 17-0, with 11:11 left in the first half, went scoreless in the first overtime possession.

Pirates’ sophomore kicker Brock Jaramillo, who made a 45-yard field goal as time expired to lift OCC to a 23-21 win at Riverside on Sept. 30, pushed a 20-yard field-goal try from the right hash mark to the right to negate OCC’s final overtime scoring chance.

Jaramillo booted a 44-yard field goal to put the Pirates up, 17-0.

But he missed a 33-yard attempt, also wide right from the right hash, late in the first half. He is seven of 12 on field-goal attempts for the season.

Gates had 123 rushing yards on 21 attempts, caught seven passes for 25 yards and amassed 56 yards on four punt returns.

“He’s a special athlete,” said McElroy, who knew he would get a special effort from Orange Coast, which upset the Gauchos, 30-28, last season.

“This was an emotional game for both teams,” McElroy said. “This was a huge win, because both teams played so hard and it could have gone either way.”

It was going the Pirates way from the outset, when Nathan Barnett, who spent his greyshirt season at Saddleback last fall, fielded the opening kickoff and bolted 99 yards for a touchdown.

OCC then attempted an unsuccessful onside kick, but Saddleback’s next three possessions ended in turnovers.

The Pirates, however, turned only one of those into points.

Freshman linebacker Shaun Mohler, a Corona del Mar High product, batted down an option pitch, recovered and returned it 16 yards to the OCC 48-yard line to end Saddleback’s first drive.

Former Newport Harbor High standout Benjamin Sosa, a freshman safety, returned an interception 22 yards on Saddleback’s next offensive snap.

Finally, Andrew Fuller recovered a Gauchos fumble at his own 32, and the Pirates went 68 yards on seven plays to add to their lead.

Andrew Banks’ seven-yard scoring run capped the march with 1:16 left in the first period.

Saddleback’s Andrew Nakihei slipped while fielding the ensuing kickoff and the ball was spotted at the Saddleback one-yard line. After a three-and-out and a short punt to the 38, OCC advanced to the 12. But a clipping penalty that nullified a Kekoa Crowell touchdown pass to Matt Guerreri stalled the drive that Jaramillo eventually capped with a field goal.

After Saddleback scored on a 65-yard pass from Nick Nelson to Maurice Clark, Banks fumbled at his own 30, which led to a Saddleback field goal to trim the halftime lead to 17-10.

After a 17-yard punt by OCC’s C.J. Santiago, Saddleback tied the score with a five-play, 62-yard march finalized by a diving catch in the end zone by Clark, who had tipped the ball to himself, away from an OCC defender, around the goal line.

OCC never seriously threatened the rest of regulation.

“We didn’t play a flawless game, but both teams played hard and I give credit to Saddleback,” OCC Coach Mike Taylor said.

“I’m sure [Jaramillo] feels real bad about [the missed field goals], but we’re a team and we can’t point fingers.”