Football: Pirates stumble in opener

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - Orange Coast College played hard right down to the

final whistle, but in the end, Cerritos College, with one of the nation’s

best ball clubs, was too much to overcome in Saturday’s 40-17 Mission

Conference Northern Division opener for both ball clubs.

“Man for man they have better athletes than we do,” Pirates Coach Mike

Taylor said afterward. “If they all took their uniforms off and did

sprint drills and weight drills, it would be no contest for them. But

saying that, I think we played pretty well against them.

“We hung tough and we battled all the way to the very last play,”

Taylor continued. “That’s all a coach can ask from his players.”

The Bucs’ game plan was to control the ball and move the ball down the

field, which they did, controlling the time of possession by over 14

minutes.

Quarterback Jared Flint was 17 for 25 for 207 yards passing, Jimmie

Banks managed to rush for 114 yards on 17 carries and wide receiver David

Castleton came up with 11 receptions for 122 yards.

In fact, Castleton’s 11 catches tied the school record for receptions

with Junior Tagaloa, who did it twice (1986, ‘87).

However, Cerritos (5-1, 1-0) managed to clamp down on defense inside

the Pirates’ red zone, preventing the Bucs from reaching the end zone.

“We really had to work hard to get every yard out there,” Taylor said.

“They’re as physical as any team we’ve faced all season, including

Palomar.”

The Falcons scored on their first two possessions to jump out to a

quick 14-0 lead.

After a Falcons’ field goal attempt was blocked, OCC appeared to have

some momentum, driving across midfield and into Cerritos territory.

That evaporated quickly as Ray Ross, known around the Mission

Conference for his league-leading nine interceptions, recovered a Pirates

fumble and returned it 55 yards to give Cerritos a 20-0 lead.

OCC (2-4, 0-1) managed to get on the scoreboard just before halftime,

courtesy of a 34-yard field goal from David Yonts with 13 seconds

remaining.

Yonts’ field goal would not have happened if not for a heroic run by

Raymond Ohrel.

With third and 18, Ohrel, stopped behind the line of scrimmage, broke

free from three Cerritos tacklers and scampered up the sideline for a

19-yard gain, keeping the drive alive.

“Our kids let it all hang out there today,” Taylor said. “When we lost

against Santa Ana, we had no intensity toward the end, but today we did

and I’m proud of the guys for that.”

After the Falcons scored on their opening drive of the second half,

Ross stuck a dagger in the Pirates’ hearts with his 10th interception of

the year, returning the ball to the Pirates’ 10-yard line, where they

would score frin one play later, extending the lead to 34-3.

“The turnovers really hurt us today, but that’s football,” Taylor

said. “That will happen when you try to go for some big plays like we

were trying to do today.”

The Pirates went deep into their bag of tricks on offense to try to

find some open yards.

Raymond Ohrel was the set-up man for most of the trickery.

First he was the pitch man on two Ohrel-to-Banks option plays that led

to a 39-yard gain for Banks.

Later in the game, Ohrel, off a pitch from Flint, rolled wide and

threw the ball back to Flint who scored from 11 yards out.

“We threw the kitchen sink at them today,” Taylor said. “We tried some

things with Ohrel out there. We couldn’t run the option with Flint, so we

went with Raymond and it worked pretty well.”

Backup quarterback Eddie Johnson led the Bucs on a 17-play, 99-yard drive at the end of the game, which was capped off with a 7-yard

touchdown run from Banks.

Johnson was 7 for 10 on the drive for 63 yards.

“Our guys are going to be all right,” Taylor said. “If we keep playing

as hard as we’re playing, we’re going to beat somebody in this

conference.”

Next up for the Pirates is a road game at Pasadena City College

Saturday night at 7.

“They’re a very athletic club, but I don’t think they have quite as

stout on defense as Cerritos,” Taylor said. “It should be fun. They have

a new facility and I’m looking forward to the matchup.”