Inexperienced starters on offense, a tough non-conference schedule, and playing without a home stadium has Pierce College at 0-3 at the beginning of the season.
Coming into the 2011 campaign, the Brahmas were ranked number 21 in the nation and were trying to build on last season’s success.
“Being young and inexperienced is not a good combination when you have to travel on the road to tough places,” said Pierce College football head coach Efrain Martinez. “The season is young; it’s a marathon.”
Two out of the first three games that were on the road were at top 30 ranked Bakersfield and Fullerton Colleges.
“These tough road games will make us better as a team, even though we lost, but all that matters really to us as a team is winning our conference,” said Brahmas’ assistant coach Jason Sabolic.
Brand new freshmen receivers are still trying to fit in into an offense that asks for a lot from them to make plays.
“The playmakers this year feel a lot of pressure to step up, since last year’s receivers could score from any spot on the fields.” said Athletic Director Bob Lofrano.
Playing on the road as a good team means you can’t make costly penalties and turnovers that will hurt your team, but Pierce has done the complete opposite.
In the first three games Pierce has had a total of 45 penalties and nine turnovers.
“We have had a hard time putting any drives together, and scoring points, penalties and rookie mistakes are killing us as a team,” said Sabolic. “We play great in the first half, we just need to put a full game together.”
Stability behind the center is also a liability to the team, passing bad snaps to the quarterback and the punter causes many problems for the Brahmas.
A bright part of the season was when sophomore running back Greg Wanamaker returned to the team in their last game at Fullerton.
“Wanamaker is someone that will defiantly help the team in the running game.” said Lofrano.
He ran for over 100 yards and had a touchdown against the Hornets.
“He is a hard runner, who is hard to bring down,” said Sabolic. “His attitude to do whatever it takes to gain yards is something the team needs.”
Head coach Martinez is confident about his roster and knows where to fix the problems.
“If we fix our issues at the wide receiver position, we will not lose another game this season,” said Martinez.
http://info.piercecollege.edu/departments/athletics/footschd.html
