Community College Football : Mission Conference : Rancho Santiago Has Better Numbers, 30-9

The value of statistics and rankings suffered greatly Saturday as Rancho Santiago College upset Palomar, 30-9.

Palomar College came into the game ranked 20th in the nation and fourth in Southern California. The Comets were tied for second place in the Mission Conference with Southwestern, one game behind Riverside, and were leading the conference in total offense, passing offense and total defense.

Rancho Santiago was just wandering through the season unranked, unnoticed and already out of the race. Its defense was 8th in the 10-team conference and its offense 4th.

But the Dons thoroughly outplayed the Comets in front of 400 spectators at San Marcos High School.

The Dons (3-3 in conference, 4-3 overall) played well enough on offense, but it was their defense that made the difference.

Rancho Santiago intercepted five passes and recovered two fumbles. Linebacker Tim Lynch and defensive backs Rod Corn, Myron Butler, Doug Rogers and Sean Sawyer had the interceptions.

The Dons also stopped Palomar (4-2, 5-2) six times inside the Rancho Santiago 35.

“Our defense played great,” said Dave Ogas, Rancho Santiago coach. “We’ve been playing pretty hard, but today we had that extra intensity it takes to win this kind of game. I could see it in their eyes. They were ready to play today.”

Rancho Santiago took a 3-0 lead on a 42-yard field goal by sophomore Darryl Willis with 12:37 left in the first quarter.

After forcing the Comets to punt on the ensuing series, the Dons took the ball 96 yards and scored on a 10-yard pass from quarterback John Cook to wide receiver Chuck Zacour for a 10-0 lead.

Cook completed 11 of 23 pass attempts for 189 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Comets.

The Dons took a 17-0 halftime lead when running back James Shipp took a pitch from Cook and threw a 25-yard scoring pass to wide receiver K. B. Nelson with 2:12 left in the half.

Rancho Santiago struggled on offense in the second half, and the defense was called upon.

Butler batted down a pass in the end zone on fourth down to stop one Comet drive.

Sampson intercepted Palomar quarterback Jonathon Mitchell on the Comet 15 to set up the final Rancho Santiago score, a four-yard run by Shipp.

Mitchell, who had been 130 of 224 for 1,633 yards and 15 touchdowns through six games, was frustrated by the Dons all afternoon.

He was benched for two series and finished 26 of 48 for 227 yards with a touchdown and 5 interceptions. He had been intercepted only nine times coming into the game.

The Dons also got three sacks from sophomore defensive tackle Salofi Hannemann, two on third-down plays in the second half.

“We had a great week of practice on offense and defense,” Ogas said. “Today the spark was just there.”

Southwestern 34, Orange Coast 27--The Pirates’ Brett Recktenwald returned a kickoff 99 yards, scored on an 85-yard punt return and made a key interception but Orange Coast (2-4, 2-5) couldn’t overcome the passing of the Apaches’ Brad Platt in Chula Vista.

Platt was 18 of 33 for 253 yards, including touchdown passes of 49 and 23 yards to wide receiver Robert Claiborne. Southwestern (5-1, 6-1) is one game behind Riverside (6-0, 7-0). Orange Coast cut Southwestern’s lead to 34-27 with 1:14 left after Recktenwald returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown. Orange Coast took over with 30 seconds left, but couldn’t score.

Saddleback 62, San Diego City 7--Wide receiver Bret Mersola caught 9 passes for 101 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Gauchos gained 605 yards and scored 9 touchdowns.

Saddleback’s Pat Hegarty completed 13 of 19 passes for 4 touchdowns and 201 yards. Hegarty played less than three quarters, after which reserve quarterback Howard Gasser completed all three of his passes for 50 yards. Gasser then gave way to third-string quarterback Joe Marr. Both Gasser and Marr scored on touchdown runs of nine yards.

Craig Ostrander caught three passes, with two for touchdowns.

Saddleback (4-2, 5-2) got most of its offense--354 yards--on the ground. Roger Fickling was the game’s leading rusher with 71 yards and 2 touchdowns in 9 attempts.

San Diego (0-6, 1-6) was held to 100 yards passing and 89 yards rushing.