Pirates stop Long Beach

Bryce Alderton

The breathing room lasted perilously too long before the Orange Coast

College football team put a stranglehold on host Long Beach City’s

hopes of claiming the first Mission Conference American Division game

Saturday night at Veterans Stadium.

The Pirates needed a final defensive stop to put away the Vikings,

17-14, in front of 400 spectators on a warm night that saw tempers

mildly flare after the clock showed all zeroes.

A slight scuffle broke out near the entrance of the tunnel leading

toward the locker rooms with about 30 fans surrounding at least one

Coast player trying to leave the field among shouting once the game

ended.

OCC Coach Mike Taylor instructed the players still speaking with

family or friends on the field to quickly board the bus to avoid any

further confrontations.

Long Beach fans swallowed a bitter pill while the OCC faithful

rejoiced when freshman defensive end Justin Williams sacked

quarterback Jason Washington for a 3-yard loss to force a

fourth-and-11 scenario for the Vikings on their final drive trailing,

17-14. Washington completed his 16th pass of the night to sophomore

tailback Tim Ier, but only for 8 yards and Coast (4-2, 2-2 in the

Mission Conference, 1-0 in the American Division) ran out the last

minute.

“Long Beach (1-5, 1-3, 0-1) is a better football team that their

record indicates,” Taylor said. “Obviously they are not Mt. San

Antonio or Palomar but they are a good team just like we are. It was

a dogfight [Saturday], which is what I expected. I was glad when I

saw all zeroes on the clock.

The mountain will get steeper for Coast the next two weeks as it

travels to face Mt. Sac before hosting Palomar. Mt. Sac (6-0, 4-0,

1-0) defeated Palomar, 26-23, in OT Saturday. Mt. Sac came into play

Saturday rated third in Southern California while Palomar was fourth.

Coast came in rated 14th and didn’t wake up until the third

quarter, when tailback Chris Vega took a pitch from quarterback

Kelika Higa and ran off right guard for a 29-yard touchdown run to

even it, 7-7, with five minutes and two seconds left in the period. A

15-yard personal foul call against the Vikings keyed the five-play,

72-yard drive.

The Pirates forced the Vikings to punt twice in successive

possessions and got the ball back on their own 43 and 14:49 to go in

the game. Higa completed passes to freshmen receivers Justin Humalon,

Jon Villanueva before hitting Brian Johnson on a post pattern for a

32-yard touchdown strike to put the visitors ahead 14-7. Johnson, a Long Beach Wilson graduate, made his first catch and touchdown this

season count.

“I saw the free safety sneak up, so I just threw it over him and

hoped [Johnson] would catch it,” Higa said. “He had good speed.”

Mike DeHart booted a 40-yard field goal with 7:06 remaining to

give Coast a 17-7 lead.

Higa used eight receivers in completing 14 of 22 passes for 201

yards and a touchdown in his second full game at quarterback.

Humalon, a 6-foot-2, 220 pound target, made grabs of 25 and 32

yards to contribute to his 82 receiving yards on five catches,

showing no ill effects of a nagging hamstring pull that has

restricted his playing time this season.

“He’s fast and has a mismatch size-wise with a lot of

cornerbacks,” Higa said. “He is a great athlete so I try to get him

the ball.”

Coleman Menke caught two balls for 25 yards while Villanueva

tallied 26 yards on two catches.

Coast’s running game was kept in check Saturday as the Bucs gained

just 82 yards while the Vikings, the conference’s worst offense

heading into the game, amassed 106 yards on the ground. The

performance came after Coast humbled then-unbeaten Santa Ana, 36-6,

two weeks ago before a bye last Saturday.

“Having the week off showed in our tackling,” Taylor said. “We

were not crisp.”

Sacks of 15 and 13 yards by linebacker Dallas DeFries and

cornerback Marcus Angeles, respectively, along with Chris Cassidy

dropping a ball carrier for a 6-yard loss and free safety Nick

Dominelli grabbing his fifth interception of the season led the Coast

defense. Sophomore linebacker Beau Gertz also got a hand in to

partially tip a punt in the third quarter.

OCC had field goals of 46 and 33 yards blocked by Long Beach.

The Bucs, the second best defensive team in the conference, gave

up 295 yards of total offense to Long Beach, more than the 221.6 the

Pirates allowed through their first five games. The Vikings came into

the game last in the conference in total offense.

Defensive line coach Scott Orloff echoed Taylor’s thoughts as the

team huddled following the victory.

“We were slow, we need to get better,” Orloff said.