Toe-to-toe

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - Six touchdown passes from Palomar College’s Greg

Cicero were too much to overcome for Orange Coast College’s football team

in a hard fought, 52-35, nonconference loss Saturday to the nation’s No.

1 ranked Comets.

“There was a lot more emotion out there today from our guys,” Pirates’

Coach Mike Taylor said, comparing last week’s 52-6 loss to Santa Ana.

“Palomar is the best team by far in either division of our conference and

we hung right in with them. We fought hard right to the end and that’s

what I’m most pleased about.”

Out of Cicero’s six touchdown strikes, four went to sophomore Nakoa

McElrath, who caught eight total passes for 247 yards for the Comets

(4-0).

It appeared that Palomar would blow the game wide open early after

jumping out to a rather easy-looking 20-0 lead after a little more one

quarter of action.

Cicero connected with McElrath on two touchdown passes (71 and 39-yard

TDs), before hitting J.R. Suruturaga with a 16-yard touchdown strike.

That’s when OCC’s offense came to life. Following six points in their

last five quarters, the Pirates showed no respect against the Mission

Conference’s toughest defense.

Quarterback Jared Flint led the Bucs through the air, completing 17 of

28 passes for 291 yards and two touchdowns, while Jimmie Banks muscled

his way on the ground, rushing for 110 yards on 19 carries and two

touchdowns.

Flint hooked up with receiver Tommy Roberts on a 44-yard touchdown

strike, cutting the lead to 20-7.

David Castleton was Flint’s favorite target on Saturday, completing

seven passes to his sophomore wide receiver for 141 yards and a

touchdown.

After Palomar made it 27-7, OCC struck again, this time on a 4-yard

touchdown run by Flint, making it 27-14.

Banks closed out the explosive first half for both schools with a

3-yard touchdown run, following another Comets touchdown, making the

score 34-21, Palomar.

In the first half, both teams combined for 634 total yards and 55

points.

The Pirate defense was missing a key ingredient with the loss of

defensive back Johnnie Peeples, was missed Saturday’s game with an

internal injury.

“He’s our best cover man and they did a great job of finding the open

guy all day long,” Taylor said. “Cicero has a quirky release and it

seemed that their receivers just ran under the passes.”

Perhaps the strangest moment came in the third quarter when neither

team managed to score a single point.

In the fourth quarter, the offensive fireworks started up again for

both teams.

OCC got as close as 34-28, when Banks scored again, this time on a

4-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Then the referees got involved.

On Plaomar’s next possession, on a third-and-12 pass play, Cicero’s

pass sailed long, but the play was called back on a controversial 15-yard

pass interference penalty, giving the first down to the Comets, instead

of a fourth-and-12.

“That was an unfortunate play for us,” Taylor said. “The ball was

clearly past the receiver when we made contact. It was an uncatchable

ball. We still had the momentum and that took it away from us.”

Five plays later, McElrath caught his fourth touchdown on a 42-yard

strike from Cicero, giving Palomar a more comfortable, 42-28 lead

following a successful two-point conversion.

From there it appeared that after matching up with the nation’s top

team began to show effect on OCC.

“I think our gas tanks started to run out at the end there,” Taylor

said. “Those are some big guys over there. They must drink some different

water over there than our guys do over here.”

The Comets stretched the lead to 52-28, before Flint found Castleton

with a 30-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds remaining.

Despite rushing for 116 yards against the conference’s top-rated

rushing defense (50 yards allowed per game), Taylor was quick to praise.

“We’ve got some solid running backs on this team, so I wasn’t all that

surprised,” Taylor said. “We had to pick our spots against them.

Palomar’s got a great defensive club and we managed to move the ball

against them.”

Next up for the Pirates is a trip to Riverside to take on the Tigers

Saturday at 7 p.m.