Offensive woes continue to plague Glendale Community College football

VALLEY GLEN — Four games into the season and there appears to be two contrasting realities for the Glendale Community College football team.

The first is that the Vaqueros defense continues to improve as the team’s anchor and main reason why the squad is not only in contests, but competitive.

The second reality is that Glendale’s offense continues to regress, sputter and hurt the squad’s chances at a victory.

Such was the case again Saturday evening, as three Glendale defensive takeaways were superseded by four offensive turnovers in a 13-0 nonconference loss at Los Angeles Valley College.

With the defeat, not only was Glendale shut out for a second time this season, marking the first such occurrence since 2012, but the Vaqueros also dropped to 0-4.

“There was a time where we went 20 years without getting shut out twice and now it’s happened twice in the same year,” said ninth-year Vaqueros Coach John Rome, who spent 14 previous years as an assistant with the program. “I’m not sure what to tell you other than we’re just going to have to go out and keep throwing and hopefully something positive will happen.”

Glendale’s defense held the Monarchs (3-0) to 10 points under their season scoring average, while Valley threw for just 113 yards and rushed for 131.

Glendale defensive backs Josh Benson and Lonnie McNamee had interceptions, while defensive lineman Payton Lowry-Sanders had a sack and recovered a fumble.

Yet, Glendale’s offense offered nothing to aid its defense.

The quarterbacking duo of David Arriaga and David Madrid combined to complete 14 of 24 passes for a season-low 62 yards and four interceptions.

Yet, blame could also be spread to an offensive line that often led both quarterbacks to scramble for their lives and running backs to have to dance and juke just to get to the line of scrimmage.

Glendale’s rushing attack also finished with a season-low 42 yards on 34 carries.

After a scoreless first half, the Monarchs finally broke through with two long drives on their first two possessions of the third quarter.

Valley drove deep into Vaqueros’ territory only to be stymied and settle for field goals of 30 and 25 yards from Adolfo Oliveros. The second put the home team up, 6-0, with 3:54 left in the third.

Four plays later, Glendale’s offense gave the ball right back to the Monarchs as sophomore linebacker Frederick Wortham intercepted a pass and returned it the Vaqueros’ 33-yard line.

It took nine plays before the Monarchs scored the contest’s lone touchdown on an eight-yard pass from quarterback Christian Jorgensen (19 of 27 for 113 yards passing) to Ahkil Crumpton with 13:17 left in the fourth quarter. A point-after gave Valley an insurmountable 13-0 lead.

As for Glendale in the second half, the Vaqueros picked up four of their 10 first downs and never progressed any farther than the Monarchs’ 40.

“These are really tough losses because the defense basically keeps everything held down,” Benson said. “The offense just has to work a little bit harder.”

Glendale’s best series was its second of the contest when it drove 46 yards on 17 plays and drained 10 minutes, 6 seconds off the clock.

The Vaqueros faced a fourth and 24 from the Valley 33 and ran a delayed draw to running back Devin Mangrum (eight carries for 27 yards) that gained six yards and resulted in a turnover on downs with 1:18 left in the first quarter.

Earlier in the drive, Glendale passed on a 38-yard field goal try and ran a successful keeper by Arriaga from the Monarchs’ 21 that netted two yards and a first down on a fourth and two.

Unfortunately for the Vaqueros, they backed up 14 yards on the next three plays, including a sack by Manuel Tayler.

Glendale only picked up one other first down on its other six drives of the first half.

“I’m proud of the defense,” Rome said. “They gave me everything they had. They have nothing to be ashamed of. They should be proud.

“As for our offense, we’re going to keep trying. What else can you do?”