ORANGE COUNTY BOWL : Crayton, Wood Lead Big Rancho Santiago Rally

For a while Saturday, it wasn’t much fun to be a member of Rancho Santiago College’s football team.

The Dons, playing in the first game of the Orange County Bowl doubleheader at Orange Coast College, were struggling.

Dressed in black, Rancho Santiago was feeling the heat of the bright, afternoon sun. And things got worse when Moorpark opened a 21-point lead in the first quarter. But thanks in part to an aggressive halftime speech from Coach Dave Ogas, Rancho Santiago rallied for a 31-28 victory in front of about 2,500.

The Dons ended the half trailing, 21-10, but freshman running back Estrus Crayton and quarterback Scott Wood led Rancho Santiago to victory.

Crayton’s 33-yard run set up a five-yard scoring pass from Wood to tight end Kyle Lynch that cut the lead to 21-17 with 13:19 left in the third quarter.

Then a Moorpark turnover turned the flow of the game.

Quarterback Jayson Merrill completed a pass to Rick Wright at the Rancho Santiago 15. Wright broke a tackle and was headed toward the end zone when the ball was stripped from him by Dave Spoolstra. The ball bounced into the end zone where Tony Gonzalez recovered for a touchback.

Then, on the next play, Crayton ran 80 yards for a touchdown and Rancho Santiago led, 24-21, with 8:11 left in the third quarter.

“It was a great block by (fullback) Paul Maund,” Crayton said. “I knew we could break a long one. Each time I ran the ball (in the first half), I was very close.”

Crayton caught a screen pass and turned it into a 45-yard pass play in the first quarter as well. He rushed for 193 yards in 24 carries and was named the game’s most valuable player.

Rancho Santiago scored its final touchdown to take a 31-21 lead with 6:58 left when Wood broke a tackle, then completed a two-yard scoring pass to Lynch on fourth down.

Moorpark scored with 4:59 left to cut the lead to 31-28 but didn’t get the ball again until only nine seconds remained. The Raiders’ final pass was intercepted by Scott McMahon.

Rancho Santiago (10-1) then spilled onto the field to celebrate an impressive comeback and the college’s most successful football season since 1962, when the Dons were 10-0.

“I was really upset with them at the half,” Ogas said. “For one of the few times (in my coaching career), I did some real chewing. Then we talked about what kept this team going all season: our togetherness. We didn’t panic and just played better in the second half.”

While the end was nice for the Dons, the start was ugly. Moorpark (9-2) scored on the first play from scrimmage, a 75-yard pass play from Merrill to Wright. Rancho Santiago was forced to punt and Moorpark scored again, this time on Freddie Bradley’s seven-yard run.

The Raiders then recovered an onside kick. Moorpark scored on a four-yard run by Marc Monestime with 3:15 left in the quarter and led, 21-0.

“It was like, boom, and they led, 21-0,” Rancho Santiago linebacker Fred Soares said. “But after that we settled down and just played better.”

Rancho Santiago had a game-record 516 yards in total offense. Wood completed 25 of 39 passes for 307 yards and three touchdowns and had no interceptions.

“The first half was a mess,” Wood said. “Everyone was talking in the huddle and we were trying to go too fast. In the second half, we settled down and everything worked great.”