Bye week comes at right time for Glendale college football
Battered and bruised, there’s now an opportunity for the Glendale Community College football team to lick and heal its wounds.
After opening the season with five losses, including a 21-13 defeat at West L.A. on Saturday in its American Metro Conference opener, Glendale will have its bye.
Glendale will return to action at 1 p.m. Oct. 14 with a conference home contest against Santa Ana.
“It looks like the bye has come at a very good time. I know I can use it,” said Glendale 10th-year coach John Rome, whose team has lost six straight games dating back to last season’s finale. “It’s just hard right now because we’ve been in some of the games.
“It gives us a little more time to get better and that first win will come. I just don’t want them to be discouraged and just stay with things. We’ll have some time for guys who have bumps and bruises to recover and we’ll go from there.”
The Vaqueros, who were 0-5 at the break and began 0-6 last season before stringing together three straight wins, have lost three of their games by eight points or less. On the flip side, their other losses came by 42 and 33 points.
The Vaqueros are averaging 11.2 points per game and yielding 29.4. Glendale is averaging 193 yards of offense per contest, while surrendering 356.2 yards.
Glendale finished with 278 yards of offense against West L.A. Reserve quarterback Guy Gibbs, a Burbank High graduate, completed 18 of 27 passes for 140 yards. He rushed for a touchdown and had one interception in his first start.
Gibbs filled in for starting quarterback Michael Bonds (St. Francis High), who suffered a right-shoulder injury against L.A. Valley on Sept. 23. Rome said there’s no immediate timetable for Bonds’ return.
“We’ve been in some of our games, so we have to look at that as a positive,” GCC running back Pileak Sun said. “The bye will give us a chance to rest and regroup and get ready for the next game.
“We can go over our mistakes and learn from them. We know we can always improve.”
Following Santa Ana, Glendale will have conference road contests against Pasadena City College (6 p.m. Oct. 21) and Compton (6 p.m. Oct. 28). Glendale will close out conference with home games versus L.A. Southwest (1 p.m. Nov. 4) and East L.A. (1 p.m. Nov. 11).
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
