Orange Coast College

Pirate Sports Shorts

Thursday, November 05, 2009

By Tony Altobelli
Sports Information Director

CREW -- With near-perfect weather conditions, over 30 different colleges and universities took to the Newport Harbor for the 2009 Newport Autumn Rowing Festival and the host Orange Coast College Pirates' crew programs did not disappoint.

crews rowing

On the men's side, the Pirates notched a pair of top-20 finishes in the Varsity 8 race, while five Novice 8 teams from Coast cracked the top 11 in a field that included four-year powerhouses Cal and Stanford.

In the Varsity 8 race, Coast's "A" team completed the 2 1/2 mile race in 11th place with a time of 15 minutes, 12.84 seconds, while the "B" team came in 20th with a time of 15:56.12.

The top place for OCC came in the Novice 8s as the Pirates' "A" team placed fourth overall with a time of 15:54.19, while the "B" team (seventh, 17:37), "C" team (eighth, 18:00.32), "D" team (18:22.99) and "E" team (18:23.06) all posted solid preseason performances.

rowing base

On the women's side, OCC's Varsity 8 "A" team came in 11th place overall with a time of 17:57.83, while the "B" team came in 14th place with an 18:47.69.

Four Coast teams competed in the Novice 8 race, with the "A" team placing seventh with a time of 19:25.18. Other Coast times include the "C" team (10th, 20:29.94), "B" team (11th, 21:07.48) and "D" team (14th, 21:24.02.).

OCC's next home event will take place on Saturday, Dec. 5 as the Pirates host the Newport Sprints, beginning at 7 a.m. The spring competition kicks off on March 13-14 with OCC's Alumni Day.

CROSS COUNTRY -- The traditions continue for the Orange Coast College men's and women's cross country programs as they, once again, take home the top prize in both races at the 2009 Orange Empire Conference Championships, held at Huntington Beach's Central Park.

On the women's side, the Pirates notched their 13th straight OEC title and 23rd overall with a near-perfect score of 18 points, while the OCC men picked up their 13th overall conference crown and seventh in the past eight years with a team score of 26 points.

Sophomore Kimone Hewitt's winning 5K time of 18 minutes, 31.4 seconds highlighted a 1-2-3-5-7 finish for the Pirates. Teammates Jane Kerner (18:39.9) and Margaret McDuffee (18:48.5) also cleared the 19-minute mark, while Hillary Labelle (fifth, 19:02.3) and Andrea Guerra (seventh, 19:17.2) also scored for Coast. In fact, seven of the top nine finishers, including freshmen Sara Toberty (eighth, 19:17.2) and Andrea Gayton-Jacob (ninth, 19:28.5) cracked the top-nine overall.

Janina Emery (13th, 20:06.3), Sonya Ercout (17th, 20:34.2) and Misha Hulka (18th, 20:36.7) added to the dominance of the Pirates as 10 runners finished in the top-18.

On the men's side, nine OCC runners cracked the top-20, led by OEC runner-up Russell Westphal, who finished the four-mile course with a time of 20:30.6. Close behind were point-earners Jake Dawson (third, 20:39.9), Eric Dyson (fourth, 20:47), Sergio Olivarrias (eighth, 21:07.3) and Jorge Torres (ninth, 21:07.9).

Other top-20 performances for Coast include Francisco Baquero (10th, 21:10.9), Michael Taylor (13th, 21:25.9), Pedro Saucedo (17th, 21:40.4) and Raul Torres (18th, 21:43.4).

The Pirates will advance to next week's Southern California Regionals, set for Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College, beginning at 9 a.m.

FOOTBALL -- Not even a friendly environment or a holiday atmosphere could help the Orange Coast College football team on Saturday night as the Pirates fell to visiting Saddleback, 52-14 in SCFA National Division, Southern Conference action.

football action

Even though it was Halloween on the calendar, the Pirates delivered several Christmas-like gifts to the Gauchos in the form of six turnovers, five of which led directly to 35 points for the Gauchos. In those five scoring "drives" one needed two plays to score, four needed just one and one was a direct touchdown off an interception.

Saddleback (7-2, 3-2 in conference) jumped out to a 31-0 lead on the Pirates (5-3, 1-3) before OCC running back Ray Holley capped off a seven-play, 65-yard scoring drive with a 1-yard TD run with 5:32 left in the half.

Coast had a chance to further chip into the deficit near the end of the half as quarterback Kyle Manning connected with Brandon Estrada on a 48-yard completion that got the Pirates down to Saddleback's 4-yard line, but time run out on the play, stalling the drive.

The Pirates opened the second half with their best drive of the night, marching down the field for 69 yards on 13 plays, capped off with another 1-yard TD run by Holley to make it 38-14.

From there, Coast tried to get back into the game through the air as Kyle Manning did his Peyton Manning impersonation, throwing the ball a record-tying 50 times (completing 19 for 231 yards and an interception). The 50 attempts by Manning tied the school's all-time record set by Alvin White in 1972 against Mt. San Antonio.

Unfortunately for Manning, on the game's final play, the sophomore from El Toro HS went back to pass, but was sacked to end the game, turning the pass attempt into a running attempt.

With Saddleback's defensive focus on Holley, the sophomore back was "held" to 96 yards on 29 carries with two TDs, giving him 1,144 rushing yards for the season. That number puts Holley at No. 5 all time for a single season, just 11 yards behind Tony Accomondo's 1,155 set in 1975 and just 298 behind Jeff Clayton's all-time total of 1,442, set in 1993.

Coast will return to LeBard Stadium on Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup with Palomar College.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL -- To help take some of the shine of their lone blemish of the season, the Orange Coast College Pirates headed up the freeway and posted a dominating performance against rival Golden West, sweeping past the host Rustlers, 25-16, 25-15, 25-19 on Friday night.

Poerava Gantt led the Pirates (14-1, 8-1 in Orange Empire Conference) with 14 kills and 14 digs, while Briana Fields added 13 kills and a .435 hitting percentage.

Defensively, the Pirates were led by Gantt and Rachel Freeno, who also notched 14 digs, while sophomore libero Nikki Osuna added 11. Setter Kimya Jafroudi dished out 37 assists.

The win helped take some of the sting off of OCC's four-game loss to the Gauchos back on Oct. 7 at the Peterson Gym.

WOMEN’S SOCCER -- It's a game that may not make the Orange Coast College women's soccer highlight reel, but at this point of the season, any win is a pretty win. Such was the case on Friday, when the Pirates topped the visiting Saddleback College Gauchos, 1-0, at the OCC Soccer Complex.

Despite outshooting the Gauchos 22-4, the game's lone goal came in the 30th minute when a loose ball in front of the Saddleback goal was possessed by Taryn Bales, who fed a pass to Kayla Albin and the freshman forward found the back of the net to give OCC a 1-0 lead.

Coast (12-4-1, 8-4-1 in Orange Empire Conference) had several other opportunities to blow the game open, but could not capitalize on the chances.

For the Gauchos (2-14-2, 1-11-1), a second-half corner kick was their best chance to tie things up, but the deflection was picked up by OCC goalkeeper Alyssa Simon, who finished with two saves.

With the win, OCC maintains sole possession of third place in conference, behind Santiago Canyon and Cypress. The Pirates will return to action on Friday at Fullerton, beginning at 3 p.m.

MEN’S SOCCER -- The Orange Coast College men's soccer team competed to a 1-1 tie with visiting Irvine Valley College on Friday at the OCC Soccer Complex.

OCC (9-7-1, 6-3-1 in Orange Empire Conference) jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 54th minute when Dean Regis sent a well-played pass down to Denny Perdomo, who slipped a pass to Omid Kazemi. From there, the freshman midfielder ripped a steep-angle shot off the IVC goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Controlling play for most of the second half, the Pirates could not get that much-needed insurance goal and it came back to bite them in the 82nd minute when IVC's Chris Popke dribbled through the Coast defense and found an opening into the upper-right portion of the net to tie the game for good.

Both teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half, although Coast again had a great opportunity to score off a breakaway, but the shot was chipped over the charging goalkeeper and just over the crossbar in the final few seconds of the half.

Pirates' goalkeeper Zakre Silva notched nine saves, while IVC's Kurt Bond came up with 11 saves.

On Friday, Coast will host OEC leader Santa Ana at the OCC Soccer Complex, beginning at 3 p.m.