Orange Coast College

Football: Pirates' struggles continue in loss to Palomar

Saturday, October 13, 2007

SAN MARCOS -- When things are tough, every mistake seems to be taken advantage of and for the Orange Coast College football team, even a solid game against a tough Palomar team can be wasted with just a few miscues.

T

hat proved to be the case as the host Comets used a safety, a botched punt and a long punt return and turned them all into points en route to a 22-10 win over the Pirates during Saturday's Mission Conference American Division opener for both teams.

The OCC offense managed to rack up 307 total yards and the OCC defense held the high-octane Comets to 267 total yards, but the aforementioned mistakes led to some short scoring drives for Palomar -- a problem that's been hampering Coast all season long.

After taking an early 3-0 lead, OCC (2-4, 0-1 in conference) opened the second quarter on its own 11-yard line, but on the second play of the series, quarterback Sean Hakes (10-16, 125 yards, 1 INT), scrambled to the left and right into the arms of Comet pass-rusher Bubba Pugh in the end zone for a safety, making the score, 3-2.

Late in the second quarter, a botched punt attempt by David Harrington gave the Comets (4-2, 1-0) the ball on OCC's 34-yard line with 1:25 left in the half. Just six plays later, PC running back Leilyon Myers crashed into the end zone from 3 yards out to give Palomar a 9-3 lead heading into the second half. Myers finished the game with 115 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.

A squib-punt gave the Comets the ball at midfield, setting up a 37-yard field goal by Joe Carithers, pushing the Comets' lead to 12-3.

Late in the third quarter, a Harrington punt attempt was blocked by Damon Luca and recovered by PC teammate Pugh at the Pirates' 38, giving the Comets another short field to work with.

A stingy OCC defense, led by a 10.5-tackle night by Shaun Mohler (eight solo, pictured above), held the Comets to a 39-yard field goal by Carithers, making the score 15-3.

Palomar capped off its scoring with a 13-play, 90-yard scoring drive, ending with a 6-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hunter Wanket to Tobias Shanks to make it 22-3.

The Pirates, held without a touchdown since the third quarter of Week 3 against Santa Ana, found the end zone on a 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chris Debowski to Craig Villalpando with 1:59 left in the game. Villalpando reached around the Palomar defender, snagged the ball with one hand and pinned it against the defender before finally gaining possession of the ball as the two players hit the ground.

Despite the loss, it was another solid defensive performance for the Pirates, who posted six sacks and notched several tackles for lost yardage. Besides Mohler, other strong performances came from Shad Bachtal (7.5 tackles, six solo, one interception), Dean LeLeone (6.5 tackles, four solo) and Matt Harris (4.5 tackles, three solo, one sack).

OCC returns to LeBard Stadium on Saturday against Fullerton, beginning at 5 p.m.