JC FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Glendale Uses Strong Line to End Pierce Win Streak

Glendale College Coach Jim Sartoris insists that football games are won or lost on the line of scrimmage.

His team’s opening-day performance Saturday afternoon at Glendale High School did nothing to change his mind. The Vaqueros outsized, out-muscled and, finally, outscored Pierce, 38-14.

The victory snapped Pierce’s 14-game regular-season winning streak.

“I thought we dominated them up front on the line of scrimmage,” Sartoris said. “We got an excellent game from our running backs, too, but everything is an awful lot easier when the lines play as well as ours did today.”

The Vaqueros yielded just 11 yards rushing in the first half and 26 in the game. They limited Pierce tailback Robert Davis, who rushed for 102 yards last week against Antelope Valley, to only 10 yards on six carries.

The offense, meanwhile, behind the running of Julius Clayton and Kevin Sterling, earned three touchdowns and a field goal as Glendale sprinted to a 24-7 halftime lead.

Sterling rushed for 80 yards on 14 carries while Clayton, a sophomore transfer from Valley College, gained 78 yards on 15 carries. Both players sat out most of the second half.

No matter who was playing, however, the Vaqueros continued to do what they wanted against the Brahmas (1-1), finishing with 548 yards in total offense to Pierce’s 250.

Perhaps the only bright spot for Pierce was the performance of backup quarterback Josh Davis, a redshirt freshman who completed nine of 21 passes for 183 yards and one touchdown. Davis was playing in place of an ineffective Steve Haddad, who was removed by Coach Jim Fenwick early in the first half.

Behind Davis, the Brahmas had plenty of opportunities to score, but two face-masking penalties and a dropped pass deprived them of three touchdowns.