Junior College Notes /Irene Garcia : El Camino Team ‘Shellshocked’ by Loss of Star Center but Escapes Defeat

According to El Camino football Coach John Featherstone, the loss of all-conference center Pat Hunt had a great effect on the team’s performance last week against Orange Coast College.

“Our kids were shellshocked,” Featherstone said. “They were hurting so much for Pat they just didn’t respond well in the game.”

They responded enough for a one-point victory, El Camino’s 13th in a row. But that won’t bring Hunt back, at least not this season. The 6-2, 260-pound sophomore tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee during a pass blocking drill before the Orange Coast game.

He underwent surgery Tuesday and will be out for the rest of the regular season. If the Warriors qualify for a bowl game in December, there’s a slight chance Hunt can play.

Featherstone is preparing his team to perform minus Hunt, chosen a preseason All-American by the junior college Grid-Wire.

“We lost three key guys early last year,” Featherstone said. “The new guys just have to become veterans quickly.”

Apparently there won’t be any more rotation among El Camino quarterbacks. It took only a game and a half for Featherstone to see that Frank Dolce, a redshirt freshman from Culver City High, is his man.

The 6-1, 200-pound quarterback had an impressive performance against Orange Coast last week. He earned the team’s offensive player of the week award for completing 15 of 19 passes for 138 yards.

Defensive back Tony Church won the defensive player of the week honor. He had 11 tackles and 2 interceptions against the Pirates.

L.A. Harbor football Coach Chris Ferragamo on playing fifth-ranked Bakersfield College this weekend: “I think we can tough it up with those guys. When we played them in 1959 (Ferragamo was a center at Harbor), we had a 13-0 lead at the half.”

But the Renegades, who have never lost a football game to Harbor, came back in the second half and won, 23-13.

“Well,” Ferragamo said, “we played a good first half and I guess we let down in the second half.”

The El Camino College women’s volleyball team placed third out of 25 teams in the Rancho Santiago tournament over the weekend. The Warriors fell 13-15 to Santa Monica College, which they had defeated in five games the previous week in the semifinal.

“It was very disappointing to lose to them,” said second-year El Camino Coach Mary McLaughlin. “But they have a good team. They start off kind of slowly, but when they get their game going they’re tough to beat.”

El Camino (2-0 in dual matches) has only one sophomore in its starting lineup but has a great supply of talented freshmen like middle blocker Cathy Alofaituli out of Carson High, Cindee Rutherford from Torrance High and middle blocker Lisa Wenker, who sprained her ankle last week but should be active for this weekend’s San Diego tournament.

The L.A. Southwest football team improved it’s record to 2-0 by defeating Compton College 22-13 last week. The Cougars were trailing 13-0 until midway through the second half when they converted two Compton fumbles and an interception into touchdowns.

Outside linebacker Phillip Ward scored on the first Compton fumble, the result of a bad snap. He ran for a 20-yard touchdown.

After that, Southwest scored on inside linebacker Alex Collins’ interception and 32-yard sprint.

Then fullback Edward Lair ran 1 yard into the end zone after another Southwest fumble.

Southwest outside linebacker William Richardson was the defensive player of the game with seven unassisted tackles, seven assisted tackles, a sack and an interception that was called back on a holding penalty.

The El Camino men’s cross-country team opened league competition on a good note. The Warriors defeated Mt. San Antonio College 24-32 at Mt. Sac. Sophomore John Fedoroff, the Warriors’ top man last year, finished the 4-mile course first (20:42.1) and teammate Carlos Carbajal came in second (20:45.7).

The women lost to Mt. Sac, 27-28. Sophomore Chris Hamilton, undefeated after three meets, finished the 3-mile course first in 18:49.6. Last year Hamilton was fourth in the state for the 5,000 meters and fifth for the 1,500 meters.

El Camino, which has appeared in the soccer state finals for the last four years, has only three starters from last year’s state champion team, which ended the season 21-3-1. Maybe that explains why the Warriors have lost almost as many games so far this year as they did during all of last season.

El Camino is 3-2-2 after Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Fullerton College. Last season, the Warriors maintained a perfect record until the last three games of the year when they lost to Fullerton, Mt. Sac and Golden West.

Besides losing to Fullerton this season, El Camino has lost to Orange Coast and Cuyamaca.

“They all play above their heads when they play El Camino,” said Coach Norm Jackson. “Against El Camino they all come sky high.”

The women’s team also lacks the strength of last year. El Camino finished with a 16-2-2 record last season. This season the Warriors are 4-3 with only two returning starters.

Both teams open conference play today. The men play host to Santa Monica College and the women play at Harbor.