COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Rancho Santiago Routs Fullerton, Earns Raves

Rancho Santiago College’s football team found encouragement in a year-old video tape Saturday night.

Rancho Santiago Coach Dave Ogas dusted off the tape of last year’s heart-breaking loss to Fullerton Saturday afternoon and his Dons came out that night and raced to a 35-10 victory in front of about 5,000 in a Mission Conference game at Santa Ana Stadium.

“This was a great win after last year,” said Fred Soares, a sophomore linebacker for Rancho Santiago.

After the 24-17 loss to Fullerton last season, the Dons lost their final two regular-season games.

“It wasn’t so much for inspiration as it was to just remind the kids of the empty feeling we had afterwards,” Ogas said. “We still have 25 sophomores that remember that game. We always show a tape of something, so I picked this one just to jog some memories.”

The Dons (7-1 overall, 6-1 in conference and 2-1 in divisional play) were emotional from the outset, and an early touchdown helped keep the level high.

Quarterback Scott Wood lofted a perfect pass down the sideline and wide receiver Paul Peters ran under it and then took off for a 92-yard pass-play for a touchdown about four minutes into the game.

Rancho Santiago would live by the big play all night. Four of the Dons’ five touchdowns came on plays of 75 yards or more. Peters, a sophomore, added an 87-yard kick off return for a touchdown in the third quarter. He finished with 258 yards in total offense.

He had three receptions good for 103 yards. Peters returned four punts for 28 yards and three kick-off returns for 127 yards.

Rancho Santiago had 381 yards in total offense to Fullerton’s 244.

Fullerton came back to tie it, 7-7, when Jeff Andrews scored on a five-yard run with 6:07 left in the first quarter.

Rancho Santiago then resorted to the shovel pass for the first time this season to take the lead.

Faced with a third and and 31 at its’ own 20, Wood threw an under-handed pass to running back Estrus Crayon a few yards deep in the backfield. Crayton broke through the middle, breaking a tackle, then cut the outside and sprinted the rest of the way with 13:25 left in the second quarter.

“We worked on it all week,” Wood said. “We finally got the timing down . . . I thought Estrus (Crayton) was just going to get the first down, but he kept on going.”

Crayton added a five-yard touchdown run with 6:08 left in the half to give Rancho Santiago a 21-7 lead.

Fullerton’s Eric Lange kicked a 32-yard field goal midway in the third quarter to cut the lead to 21-10, but Peters’ kick-off return for a touchdown followed.

Crayton, a freshman, capped the explosive night with a 75-yard run for a touchdown with 14:42 left in the game. He had 126 yards rushing in 15 carries and two receptions for 85 yards.

Wood was 7 of 17 for 213 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, and had three passes dropped. Fullerton quarterback David Chisum was 14 of 24 for 169 yards and was intercepted once.

Fullerton is 5-3, 4-3, 2-1.

In another Central Division games:

Golden West 26, Saddleback 21--Sean Cheatham rushed for 182 yards in 35 carries to lead Golden West at Orange Coast College. Golden West improved to 4-4 overall, 4-3 in conference and 1-2. Saddleback is 1-7, 1-6, 0-3.

Riverside 33, Orange Coast 17--Daryl McChristian rushed for 160 yards in 20 carries, including a 78-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, to pace host Riverside (8-0, 7-0, 3-0). Orange Coast is 5-3, 4-3, 1-2.