Javier Zazueta, Ava Weintraub
The Citrus College Fighting Owls picked apart the Pierce College Brahmas football team in a humiliating defeat, 44-13, Saturday at Citrus Stadium in Glendora.
With this loss, Pierce now has a record of 3 wins and 4 losses, but only a 1-3 record against Western State Conference (WSC) opponents. Meanwhile the Owls improve to 5-2 overall and 4-0 against WSC foes.
Although Pierce started the game with the ball, Citrus College attacked first. They forced a fumble against Brahma quarterback Alexander Pettee, which led to a Citrus rushing touchdown with 3:33 left in the first quarter.
Pierce answered in the next drive, as wide receiver Michael Cooper caught a 13-yard pass from Pettee to tie the score, 7-7.
The Owls again attacked defensively. Citrus Linebacker Andrew Cedergen intercepted a pass from Pettee on the Pierce 13-yard line, which led to another rushing touchdown by Citrus.
Later, after the Owls punted the ball, the Brahmas scored a rushing touchdown by Pettee, but kicker Bradley Borreson failed to score on the field goal kick, which led to the end of the first half, with Citrus leading 14-13.
After returning from halftime the Brahmas failed to scored for the rest of the match up. The Owls, who have been averaging less than 100 rushing yards per contest, rushed for 342 against Pierce.
In the second half, running was the name of the game. Three out of the four touchdowns Citrus had were rushing touchdowns. Marquis Winbush, Dwight Broadnax and Aaron Ridgeway combined for a total of 323 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
“They noticed that we were outmanned,” said Brahma head coach Efrain Martinez. “Anytime a team knows they are outmaned they are going to do the simple things, just run right over them.”
Owls head coach Kevin Emerson said, “It was nice that we regrouped, came out in the second half and really put a full team effort.”About the lack of a passing game in the second half Emerson said, “We didn’t need it, we didn’t want to use it. We wanted to establish a running game and play action game.”
As for the lackluster second half by the Brahmas, Martinez said, ” We tried to make adjustments, and they made adjustments as well. Their adjustments worked a little better than ours did.
“We are a young team, but they fought.”
With this loss, Pierce has now lost four out of their last five games, after starting the 2007 season with a two-game winning streak. The Brahmas will return home to face Moorpark on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. “They are going to be just as good or even better than (Citrus),” said Martinez of the upcoming match up.
“But we have to go to the drawing board and see if we can fix things up.”
Pierce College Defensive back Craig Alexander #31 returns a kickoff on Saturday against Citrus College. The Brahmas lost to the Fighting Owls 44-13. ()