Faulkner: Streaking OCC in contention
Orange Coast College honored the most successful football team in its history during halftime of Saturday’s 34-24 Southern Conference victory over visiting Palomar. But with a four-game winning streak and the No. 17 ranking in the state, Coach Kevin Emerson’s Pirates (4-2) are fueling an optimism that the program has seldom generated in recent history.
About two-dozen players from the 1975 national championship team that went 11-0 were on hand for a pregame reunion and halftime ceremony on Saturday. And nostalgia had been just about all OCC rooters could cling to for the past two decades.
After an 8-3 season in 1993, OCC posted winning records only three times over the next 21 seasons. And only once — a 7-4 campaign in 2006 that resulted in the school’s last bowl appearance — did the program exceed one game better than .500.
But the current winning streak, which includes a 31-23 upset of then-No. 9-ranked Fullerton and an impressive come-from-behind triumph over a Palomar program with a storied past, has as much substance as any string of success in recent memory.
OCC started its season 4-0 in 2008 and 2009, though it finished 0-6 and 1-5, respectively, in those years during the 15-year tenure of then-coach Mike Taylor.
The Pirates opened 5-0 in 2006 and also won six straight spanning the 2007 and 2008 seasons, the program’s longest winning streak since the aforementioned windfall in 1975.
Emerson, in his second season at the helm, deserves much of the credit for the upswing. After getting the job following the recruiting season for the 2014 campaign, he and his staff have lured talented players and developed a devotion to incremental improvement.
Things began dismally this season with a woeful performance in a 41-16 drubbing at Chaffey. But OCC gave then No. 6-ranked Cerritos a scare in a 34-31 Week-2 loss, from which confidence began to take root.
A 38-8 drubbing of Moorpark followed and, after the Fullerton upset on the road, the Pirates won easily at Los Angeles Pierce, 35-7.
Beginning with the Cerritos game, OCC has scored at least 30 points in five straight contests. The last time OCC surpassed that was, you guessed it, 1975, when it happened in seven straight games. OCC also scored at least 30 points five straight times in 1971, 1993 and 2012.
The fortuitous run will be challenged on Saturday, when No. 11-ranked Saddleback visits for a 1 p.m. conference clash.
Saddleback which has won five in a row after an 0-2 start, sits atop the Southern Conference standings with a 3-0 record. OCC and No. 2-ranked Golden West (6-0) are tied for second at 2-0.
“Every week is a championship game for us right now,” said Emerson, who also coordinates the no-huddle offense. “We have to take that mindset. When we took this job and when we talk to our players, it’s about championships, and that’s our goal every year. So this week, we’ve told our guys, ‘Hey, we’re in position to be on top, and that’s where we want to be.’”
Should OCC get past Saddleback, a visit to Santa Ana (1-5, 0-2) is set for Oct. 31, before the West Coast Showdown with district-rival Golden West on Nov. 7. That is a home game for the Rustlers, who share OCC’s LeBard Stadium.
OCC closes the regular season at home against Grossmont (2-5, 0-3) on Nov. 14.
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•The foremost reasons for OCC’s success are a solid defense and the sophomore passing combination of receiver Stefan Derrick and quarterback Mason Dossey.
Derrick, who played sparingly in the secondary last season, is tied for the state lead with 10 touchdown catches (tops in the conference). He has 36 receptions, almost double the second-most on the team, for 723 yards. He is averaging 20.1 yards per catch had has scoring receptions of 71, 60, 54, 36, 34, 27 and 22 yards.
Dossey, a bounce-back from Humboldt State who beat out returner Cody Whitaker and has started the last five games, has completed 99 of 157 passes (63.1%) for 1,348 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has thrown only three interceptions.
Defensively, coordinator Wayne Schmida has a group for which the front four, the linebacking trio and the secondary have all consistently performed. OCC ranks No. 8 among 37 Southern California schools in scoring defense (22.8 points allowed per game). The Pirates’ four defensive touchdowns, all on interception returns, rank second in SoCal and its 11 interceptions are tied for fifth.
Freshman strong safety Brandon Worthy has five interceptions and his 31 tackles rank fifth on the squad.
Sophomore cornerback Derrick Worthy, a second-team all-conference performer as a freshman, has returned all three of his interceptions for touchdowns of 87, 77 and 26 yards.
Sophomore middle linebacker Mark Cushing, a transfer from Southeast Missouri State, leads the team with 61 tackles, and his 10.2 tackles per game rank fourth in the state.
“Our defense has come along quite nicely, which has allowed us to stay in our games,” said Emerson, whose 2014 team ranked last in SoCal in pass defense (285.3 yards per game) and 35th in total defense (457.3 yards per contest).
“And the offense has made some plays every week that have kept our head above water as well,” Emerson said. “Collectively as a team, we’re doing the whole offense-defense thing the right way. I think guys are buying into the system and believing what we’re trying to do, and it’s starting to pay off.”
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•Vanguard University women’s basketball will be without All-American guard Riley Hosinger, who elected to return home to Washington and is not competing as a senior this season, Lions Coach Russ Davis said.
Holsinger, who tore her ACL in the final regular-season game last season, averaged 19.9 points, fifth-most in the nation, along with 7.8 rebounds, nearly three steals and 2.3 steals in her only year at Vanguard, after transferring from Spokane Falls Community College.