Glendale Community College football ready for conference action
With its starting quarterback injured and unlikely to return for at least a couple of weeks, the Glendale Community College football team will turn to its backup signal-caller to get the Vaqueros on track.
The stakes will be of much more significance for Glendale.
After going winless in four nonconference games, Glendale (0-4) will begin American Metro Conference action with a road game against West L.A. (0-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Glendale suffered a 33-0 home defeat against L.A. Valley on Saturday. The Vaqueros saw starting quarterback Michael Bonds, a St. Francis High graduate, suffer an undisclosed injury in the second quarter after completing four of 14 passes for 19 yards and one interception. Guy Gibbs, who helped Burbank High advance to the CIF Southern Section Division VIII championship game last season, will take over the signal-calling responsibilities while Bonds recovers from his injury.
“[Bonds] went to see a specialist [Monday], so we’ll see,” said Glendale coach John Rome, whose team finished with just 77 yards of offense against Valley. “”I’m saying that at the very most optimistic, he’ll be back in three weeks.”
Gibbs completed five of 15 passes for 32 yards and two interceptions and rushed for 27 yards in four carries versus Valley. Overall, Gibbs has completed six of 18 passes for 42 yards and two interceptions.
“I’m very confident. I think Guy Gibbs is a quality young man. He’s intelligent,” said Rome, who added wide receiver Donovan Martinez will likely be the back-up to Gibbs. “He’s not as big as Michael and his deep ball is not quite as strong, but he’s still a good leader. He wouldn’t have made it to the CIF finals if he wasn’t a good quarterback.”
Glendale, which will have a bye the following week, will look to avoid losing its sixth straight game after committing 20 penalties for 155 yards against Valley.
“There were very strange penalties,” Rome said. “We had two because guys jumped up to block a kick. I’ve never heard of that and that might be a misinterpretation by those officials.
“A lot of them were personal fouls, which came in a game where you’re struggling and playing hard and sometimes you get on that borderline of being a little bit out of control and I think we were. Their defensive line would move and they would yell ‘go’, which is one of our signals for our snap count. We had a high incident of illegal procedures on offense so we needed to remind the officials of that, too.”
West L.A. fell, 24-21, at Victor Valley in a nonconference game Saturday.
West L.A. quarterback Markell White completed 24 of 39 passes for 188 yards, three touchdown passes and had one interception. Overall, White has completed 54 of 79 passes for 393 yards. He’s thrown four touchdown passes and three interceptions.
West L.A. wide receiver Rasheed Cox caught 13 passes for 83 yards and one touchdown against Victor Valley.
Glendale finished 3-7, 3-3 in conference last season, including a a 58-9 loss against West L.A. Glendale had won the previous three meetings.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
