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Pirates fall late to Vaqueros, 38-28

Pirates fall late to Vaqueros, 38-28

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College football team was its own worst enemy as some late-game mishaps proved costly in the Pirates' 38-28 American Metro Division loss to visiting Glendale on Saturday at LeBard Stadium.

In spite of the loss, Coast had several reasons for optimism against a tough Vaqueros' squad. OCC's offense racked up a season-best 457 yards of total offense, including a season-best 281 passing yards from quarterback Baylor Ayres, but a couple of momentum changing plays late turned a 28-28 tie into a Glendale victory.

Coast had the ball midway through the fourth quarter in a tie game, but a big QB sack by Emiliano Contreras pushed the Pirates way back and following an incomplete pass, OCC was forced to punt. The snap sailed high and with a charging Glendale squad closing in on Pirate punter Calvin Kirchoff, he did all he could to scramble wide and pooch a punt for minimal yardage, giving Glendale the ball on the OCC 18-yard line. Just one play later, quarterback Nicholas Garcia found Michael Dulin for a touchdown completion and with 6:35 remaining, the Pirates trailed, 35-28. 

OCC looked to drive down the field for a game-tying score, but Ayres' lone interception of the afternoon came with 4:03 left as GC's Dominique Benson came up with the pickoff and scampered 40 yards into OCC territory. Glendale capped off the scoring with a 23-yard field goal from John Delgado to put the Vaqueros up by two scores with just over one minute remaining.

Coast trailed 7-0 through the first quarter and had a chance to even things up early in the second, but a 12-play, 71-yard drive stalled on the Glendale goal line. The Vaqueros quickly got out of the shadows of their own end zone and marched 99 yards on 13 plays, capped off by a 3-yard TD run by Giorgio Spiropoulos.

The turning point for the OCC offense came just two plays later when Ayres connected with Kaden Baptista, who got past his defender and cashed in a 71-yard touchdown strike, cutting the deficit in half at 14-7.

Looking for more points, Glendale struggled on its next drive, ending with a Rob Martin sack and forced fumble, which was recovered by teammate Charlie Iafeta on the Vaqueros' 24-yard line with 1:09 remaining in the half.

An Ayres completion to Quentin Underwood pushed the ball inside the Glendale 10 and two plays later, J.P. Segura dove into the end zone from 3-yards out to tie the game up before halftime. Segura capped off a busy afternoon with a season-high 154 rushing yards on 31 attempts and one TD.

Coast took the second-half opening kickoff and drove down the field. The Pirates capped off an 11-play, 75-yard drive with a 25-yard TD strike from Ayres to Kaleb Stamps and suddenly, the Pirates were up, 21-14.

The aggressive Pirate offense struggled on third down (2-of-12) but kept drives going with four successful fourth-down attempts on six tries.

Ayres was 16-of-31 for 281 yards and three TDs with NINE different Pirates catching at least one pass. Baptista (2 catches, 94 yards, 2 TDs) and Stamps (3-78, 1 TD) came through with the big plays throughout the game.

Garcia, who was 19-of-35 for 273 yards and three TDs, tied things back up with a 3-yard TD pass to Nicholas Johnson late in the third quarter to tie things up at 21.

Glendale kicked off the fourth quarter with a short field and capped off a 38-yard scoring drive with a 2-yard TD run by Spiropoulos to put the Vaqueros up, 28-21.

Segura and Ayers pushed the Pirates back up the field and a 23-yard TD strike from Ayres to Baptista evened the score, once again, at 28.

On defense, Jake Hall and Nathaniel Lyken each had nine tackles (six solo), while Hall added three QB hurries to his resume. 

OCC will be on the road for the next two weeks, beginning at Santa Ana College on Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m. OCC will wrap up the regular season at home on Saturday, Nov. 12 against West L.A., also at 6 p.m.

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Annabelle Low
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