Glendale Community College football shows improvement in defeat

GLENDALE — In search of its first victory of the season, the Glendale Community College football team appeared to catch the break it needed.

Instead, that hope turned out to be a pipe dream for Glendale, which suffered a frustrating 21-19 nonconference loss against Mount San Jacinto on Saturday at Sartoris Field.

Glendale appeared to recover a loose ball after a punt struck a Mt. San Jacinto player in the back of the leg at the 20-yard line with 4:01 left in the fourth quarter and it trailing, 21-19. Glendale’s Matt Erickson recovered the ball and the officials briefly awarded the Vaqueros possession. Then the ruling was overturned, leaving Glendale Coach John Rome flummoxed.

“We thought we had it, but [the officials] made sure they were right,” said Rome, whose team dipped to 0-3. “Sometimes calls just don’t go your way.

“I thought we played a much better game than we did in the first two games. We made some improvements and we kept creating chances throughout the second half.”

Glendale, which began a season at 0-3 for the first time since 2011, overcame a large deficit to take a 19-18 lead on a two-yard run by Devin Mangrum with 14:45 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Mt. San Jacinto (2-0) then took a 21-19 lead on a 30-yard field goal by Josh Gonzalez with 7:22 to go.

Glendale had two scoring opportunities late in the game, only to see both drives stall. The final drive ended with quarterback David Arriaga sacked near midfield as time expired.

Making his second start of the season, Arriaga completed nine of 29 passes for 86 yards. He had one touchdown and one interception.

The Eagles scored on their first two possessions in the first quarter.

Mike Reed caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Corwin Cutler with 12:10 left to make it 6-0. They then took a 12-0 lead on a 15-yard run by running back Jomari Becnal with 5:12 to go.

Glendale, which mustered just 14 points in its first two games, trimmed the deficit to 12-7 on a 23-yard touchdown run by Arriaga with 1:05 left in the second quarter.

However, the Eagles took an 18-7 lead with 2.9 seconds left in the first half when James Duff hauled in a 32-yard pass from quarterback Jake Newton.

The Vaqueros pulled to within 18-13 on a six-yard touchdown pass from Anthony McGinnis from Arriaga with 12:36 left in the third quarter.

Mangrum finished with 86 yards rushing in 11 carries. The Vaqueros finished with 261 yards of offense, compared to 294 from the Eagles.

Becnal finished with 106 yards rushing in 24 carries.

“It was our best game of the season,” said GCC linebacker Cody Shoemaker, who finished with a team-best seven tackles. “Our defense was nails and we improved on offense.

“We gave ourselves a chance. A lot of good things can come from the effort.”

Glendale will wrap up nonconference action at 7 p.m. Saturday on the road against L.A. Valley.