SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SPRINTS PAST PIERCE COLLEGE 42-13

By Matthew Robinson

It was an ominous sign that things weren't going to go Pierce College's way when on their first offensive play of the game, wide receiver TYRAL VENEY let a near perfect pass slip through his fingers at the 30-yard line. If he would have caught that pass he had nothing but 30 free yards in front of him for a score.

But Veney wasn't the only Pierce player who had an off-night, as the Pierce Brahmas lost 42-13 to the Southwestern College Jaguars 42-13 at John Shepard Stadium in Woodland Hills, California.

The Jaguars (3-0) for their part had something to do with this win as they took care of business on both sides of the ball. They took advantage of the Brahmas' many stalled offensive drives, dropped passes, a lack of a pass rush and the fact that the Brahmas defense had trouble with defensing the outside game of the Jaguars offense.

Jaguars receivers IMAN CHATMAN-DIXON and RYAN STOKES combined to torment the Brahmas defense for the balance of this game. Those combined to eat up the Brahmas secondary to the tune of 14 catches for 229 yards and 4 scores. It was Stokes who did the most damage though, as he kept beating or getting behind Pierce's cornerbacks on streaks, go-routes, and slant/corner routes.

But it was Chatman-Dixon's two scoring catches which pretty much put this game away near the end of the second quarter. He summarized his teams' performance tonight. "As a team we came out strong in the first quarter," he said. Second, third quarter we came out a little lackadaisical but we came back in the end [fourth quarter] strong. As a team we need to work on finishing strong in the second half and I feel we improved on that today."

The Jaguars used two quarterbacks in this game in sophomores MICHAEL GLASS III (14 of 24 for 219 yards and 3 touchdown passes) and JOE HUDSON (7 of 14 for 61 yards and 1 score). And both of them gave the Brahmas defense trouble all night with their run and passing skills, which included their propensity to challenge the outside game of the Brahma defense.

Brahma freshman defensive back ROBBY MOORER (2 tackles) took a stab at how his defensive mates put up with the Jaguars offense. "We put our heart on the field," he said. Our contain rush was real good, it's just that hurry-up [the Jaguars quick offensive pace and no huddles]. They were real repetitive, just off the ball going, going, going. It [the pace] was just gassing us and we wasn't used to that."

Brahmas head coach JASON SABOLIC gave his team a stern lecture near the west end of the stadium. And the fire and volume of his voice in that lecture could be heard as far as the top of the Visitors bleachers. But he had good reason to be angry. Because the Brahmas really laid an egg on both sides of the ball in this game.

Sabolic in his post-game interview was characteristically blunt about his team's performance last night. "Twelve dropped footballs, inopportune penalties, [and] the turnover bug (three). It's not much you can do to combat a team that's scoring at will," Sabolic pointed out.

The Jaguars scored the first points of the game, when Pierce quarterback BRANDON PERDUE (7 of 20 for 78 yards and 1 touchdown heave) tried to avoid a sack and safety by throwing the ball past the plane of the goal line as he was in the grasp of Jaguar defensive tackle RASHEED FARHA (7 tackles, including 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack and a forced fumble). The referees didn't buy Perdue's attempt of a forward pass and awarded the Jaguars a safety.  Southwestern took a 2-0 lead with 10:07 left in the first quarter.  

The Jaguars increased their lead when Glass took the snap and then looked to his left where he found receiver Chatman-Dixon near the left corner of the end zone. The score moved to 9-0 with 1:54 left in the first quarter. 

Then Glass did it again. With so much time to go through his progressions, Glass looked to his right and found a streaking Stokes who blazed past Brahmas cornerback CAMERON CONWAY and caught Glass' pass in the end zone for a 28-yard score. That play gave the Jags a 16-0 lead with 9:11 left in the first half.  

The Brahmas finally got on the board freshman kicker KEVIN ROBLEDO sent his kick 49 yards to the bottom bar of the goal post. That successful boot cut the Jags' lead to 16-3 with 5:30 left in the first half.

If the Brahmas weren't already in a deep hole, they got extra help to dig themselves deeper into that hole when Hudson rifled a pass to the back of the end that was caught by Chatman-Dixon for a 7-yard score. With 41.9 seconds left in the first half the Jags took their lead to 23-3.

A 50-yard reception to the SWC 27 by Veney, gave the Brahmas some hope near the later part of the third quarter. Veney's reception set up a 5-yard touchdown reception by fellow receiver GABRIEL LAURENCO (6 catches for 18 yards and 1 score), who caught the pass as he was going down and into the end zone. That scoring reception cut the Jags' lead to 29-10 with 4:35 left in the third quarter.

Stokes added to the Brahmas' misery, when he slipped past the Brahma defense with him then dropping his right arm to near his right hip to gather in a pass for a marvelous one-handed grab and 27-yard score. With 6:37 left in the game, the Jaguars had a 35-13 lead.

A late interception by Jaguar defensive back DONNELL PLEASANT that he took to the PC 5 yard line, set up a 5-yard touchdown run by receiver MARQUIS WILLIAMS which put the score at 42-13 with 4:34 left in the game. 

photo by Dale Beck