OCC victory upset special

COSTA MESA — The play will need at least a couple more weeks of action before the Orange Coast College football team can considered it reliable.

But on Saturday night, the play-action pass back to running back Andrew Banks, was the crutch a hobbling offense needed.

Orange Coast had yet to convert on third down in the second half, and was only one for seven in the game, when it lined up for third and six at the Palomar 41 with less than four minutes remaining.

So the Pirates called what had worked for 20 yards earlier and led to a touchdown for Orange Coast.

Quarterback Kekoa Crowell faked the handoff to Banks and rolled right, along with the entire Palomar defense. All by himself, 15 yards down on the other side of the field was Banks. He waited for the pass, caught it, darted down the sideline, slipped a tackle at the 10 and scored the decisive touchdown in Orange Coast’s 28-21 home victory over Mission Conference foe Palomar.

The win put the Pirates at 3-0 for the first time since 1991 and broke a five-game losing streak to Palomar (2-1), to which Orange Coast had lost nine of its last 10.

Orange Coast College Coach Mike Taylor said the play is something the team has run in the past and worked on in the past week of practice.

“It’s kind of a throwback,” Taylor said. “It’s a good play. They are a pursuing defense. That kind of play can hurt any team that runs well. We run it and it looks good in practice.”

The Pirates had three plays of 20 or more yards on the night, all based on misdirection.

“I knew it was coming because they flow to the ball a lot,” Banks said of the winning play. “I knew it would work a second time.”

Nearly a third of the Pirates’ offense came on the game-winning drive, but Banks never lost confidence.

“I believe in all my teammates,” he said.

But it was special teams, then the defense, which again carried the offense to the end.

The Pirates went three-and-out in the team’s first two drives of the game, before the special teams put the offense in as prime a position as they could.

Chris Holmsely burst through a seam in the Palomar protection to block what would be his first of two punts on the night. Nick West recovered the ball at the one-yard line and Orange Coast took a 7-0 lead on the next play as Jerrell Cephas dived in.

“I was just trying to get to the block,” Holmsley said. “It’s something we work on everyday at practice.”

On the following Palomar drive, the defense forced another three-and-out and Holmsley took advantage of a mishandled snap to block another punt that put the offense 24 yards from the end zone.

Banks ran three times for 24 yards, capped by a six-yard touchdown run and the Pirates led, 14-0.

Derrell Perkins added Orange Coast’s third blocked punt of the game, late in the first half, but with less than a minute remaining the offense ran out of time before it could score.

“[Special teams] is a third of the game,” Taylor said. “Sometimes people forget that.”

Punt returner Chris Assily enjoyed his view on all three blocked punts.

“I’m screaming, I’m jumping around, I’m pointing,” Assily said. “It makes my job easy. They did a great job.”

The OCC defense has been consistent in all three games and on Palomar’s final drive it held the Comets to negative yards.

“We had it,” said Assily, a defensive back. “We wanted it so much. We knew it. We had the momentum and it was on us.”

“This was probably the biggest win for us in five or six years,” Taylor said. “We talked about holding them to 35 points. The offense had to step up and they did.”

Palomar came in leading the state in the points (57) and yards (558).

Assily added: “That was a big win for us. Palomar is a really good team. It was a key win. I’m just happy the offense came through at the end. I wasn’t nervous.”

The Pirates play visiting Pasadena on Saturday.