Moorpark, Up 21-0, Shot Down, 31-28

Numerous records were broken in the Orange County Bowl on Saturday, but to the Moorpark College football team, the result simply sounded like a broken record.

Moorpark jumped to a 21-point first-quarter lead, but ultimately it was the same old song, a frustratingly close bowl-game loss to Rancho Santiago for the second consecutive year.

If the tune was the same, the tenor was slightly different. Rancho Santiago (10-1) scored 31 unanswered points to win an offensive shoot-out, 31-28, before 2,500 at LeBard Stadium in Costa Mesa. Last season, Rancho Santiago beat Moorpark, 17-10, in defensive battle in the PONY Bowl.

Moorpark’s vaunted defense surrendered an Orange County Bowl-record 516 yards and allowed Rancho Santiago quarterback Scott Wood to complete a record 25 passes. Running back Estrus Crayton gained nearly half as many rushing yards as Moorpark (9-2) had allowed during the entire season with a bowl-record 193 yards.

“They just outplayed us,” said Moorpark’s All-American linebacker, Tom Briggs, who was limited to one sack.

Moorpark wide receiver Rick Wright set a single-game receiving record of 194 yards under bittersweet circumstances. Wright caught a 75-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game but made a critical fumble on the Rancho Santiago three-yard line early in the third quarter.

Wright had caught a 29-yard pass from Jayson Merrill and was straining for the goal line when the ball squirted loose. Rancho Santiago’s Tony Gonzalez recovered the ball in the end zone, and Crayton, the game’s most valuable player, ran a bowl-record 80 yards for a touchdown on the ensuing play to give Rancho Santiago a 24-21 lead.

“The turning point of the game was the fumble down here,” Moorpark Coach Jim Bittner said. “You can’t blame the guy. He was trying real hard to do something special, and the ball just popped out.”

Wright had done something special on his touchdown catch. He lined up in the left slot, streaked over the middle on a post and caught a bull’s-eye pass from Merrill.

Two possessions later, Wright caught a 26-yard pass from Merrill to set up Freddie Bradley’s seven-yard touchdown run. Moorpark’s Sean Cheevers lofted a short diagonal kick that teammate John Corcoran recovered, setting up a seven-play, 53-yard touchdown drive.

Marc Monestime threaded four yards into the end zone, and Moorpark had built a 21-0 lead with 3:15 remaining in the first quarter. Merrill, who completed 19 of 35 passes for 319 yards, threw for 153 in the first quarter, and Bittner’s plan of freeing the running lanes by establishing the pass appeared to be working.

“They expected to know our offense, and we put in some new plays,” Merrill said. “After you’re done surprising them, though, it kind of turns into a fistfight, and the whole difference was that we made some costly mistakes.”

Unable to control the ball on the ground, Moorpark saw a seemingly safe 21-0 lead become a tenuous 21-10 margin at halftime.

“We didn’t get away from what we were doing fast enough,” Bittner said. “The plan coming out at the half was to get the ball into Bradley’s hands more. . . . A big part of it was that they were pretty much able to control our running game, and we became pretty dependent on the pass.”

Bradley rushed for 68 yards in 17 carries and Moorpark gained only 109 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, Crayton rushed for 175 second-half yards against a Moorpark team that was placed in the unfamiliar position of trailing in a game.

“I think everybody was kind of down because they scored those points on us,” Briggs said. “We haven’t had to do that (play from behind) all year.”

Merrill found Peter Marine with a 17-yard touchdown pass to cut the margin to 31-28 with 4:59 left, but Rancho Santiago held onto the ball until only three seconds remained. Merrill’s last, desperation pass was intercepted.

Wood completed 25 of 39 for 307 yards. He threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Crayton and touchdown tosses of two and five yards to Kyle Lynch to tie the bowl mark for touchdown passes.