Orange Coast College

Pirate football falls to El Camino, 31-17

Saturday, October 14, 2006

TORRANCE - Orange Coast College was its own worst enemy on Saturday night, but the El Camino Warriors were a close second.
With the help from four OCC second-half turnovers, the Warriors overcame a 10-7 halftime deficit and gave the visiting Pirates their first loss of the season, 31-17, in both teams' Mission Conference opener.
The 10th-ranked Warriors (5-1, 1-0 in conference) showed why they spent a week at the top of the state football polls, using a balanced offense (202 rushing yards, 201 passing yards) and an aggressive defense to slow down the ninth-ranked Pirates (5-1, 0-1).
Of those four turnovers in the second half three were converted into touchdowns for the Warriors as they scored the first 24 points of the second half before an OCC touchdown late in the fourth capped off the final score.
In the first half, the Pirate defense bent but didn't break as they allowed the Warriors to march up and down the field, but held them to just seven points along the way.
Those points came on their first series of the night as El Camino took seven plays and 72 yards to find the end zone as Verran Tucker pulled in a 12-yard pass from quarterback Boo Jackson.
A Warrior fumble wiped out a 12-play, 51-yard drive and the Pirates turned that turnover into points as Brock Jaramillo nailed a 45-yard field goal midway through the second quarter to cut the deficit to 7-3.
OCC's defense tightened up and, following an ECC punt, the Pirates marched 66 yards on six plays and took the lead when A.J. Moskus pulled in a 30-yard touchdown pass from Kekoa Crowell with 1:16 left in the first half, giving the Bucs a 10-7 lead at the half.
The turning point came in the third quarter. El Camino opened the third with a Joe Houston 29-yard field goal to tie the game at 10.
From there, it was the OCC mistakes that did the Pirates in. The next two OCC drives resulted in interceptions and those were turned into El Camino touchdowns as Jeremy Francis and Jamicah Bass each plowed into the end zone from a yard out to give the Warriors a 24-10 lead after the third quarter.
Any hopes of an OCC comeback were washed away when Crowell tried to throw a pass away from his own end zone. The ball landed in the arms of Warrior defender James Wheeler and he jogged in from 5-yards out to give the Warriors a 31-10 advantage.
OCC capped off the scoring with a six-play, 49-yard scoring drive, capped off by a 5-yard touchdown pass from Crowell to George Raco.
Crowell finished with 151 passing yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions on 12-of-23 passing. Jackson completed 18 of 23 passes for 201 yards and one TD.
The Pirates' running game was slowed by the tenacious Warrior defense. OCC managed just 100 yards on the ground on 29 carries.
It doesn't get any easier for the Pirates, as they return home to host 6-0 Saddleback on Oct. 21 (1 p.m.) and 6-0 Santa Ana on Oct. 28 (5 p.m.).