COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Defensive Miscue Leads to Golden West’s First Loss

When the time came Saturday for the Golden West College defense to show its poise, the Rustlers failed, and the result was a 14-7 loss to Palomar in a Mission Conference game at San Marcos High School.

Palomar had a fourth-and-inch situation at the Golden West 44 with 2 minutes six seconds left.

But the Comets didn’t need to run a play to get the first down. As Palomar quarterback Brett Salisbury started his cadence, the center of the Golden West line jumped offsides.

After being awarded the first down on that penalty, Palomar hung onto the ball for another minute, before punting to Golden West with 1:07 left.

Golden West quarterback David Brunet then completed two passes for 19 yards before being intercepted at midfield with nine seconds left.

The offsides miscue was one of the defense’s few mistakes, but another in a series of silly errors made by Golden West, which started the day undefeated and ranked 11th in the J.C. Grid-Wire national poll.

Golden West was called for 14 penalties for 132 yards, including an unsportsmanlike conduct call on the sidelines that prevented a drive early in the third quarter.

The Rustlers’ Bobby Sylvia returned a punt 15 yards to the Palomar 29, and continued running once he was out of bounds. He was then leveled by a Palomar player, but there was no personal foul call. Golden West’s protest about the non-call earned the Rustlers an unsportsmanlike penalty and first and 25 at the 44 instead of first and 10 at the 29. On fourth down, Wayne Duplantus’ 39-yard field goal attempt was blocked.

Two series later, Palomar scored the only touchdown of the second half when Sal Gelommini blocked Golden West punter Roger Morisselle’s attempt at the Rustler 17.

Gelommini recovered the ball at the five and stumbled into the end zone for the touchdown with 4:25 left in the third quarter to put Palomar ahead, 14-7.

“The penalties and special teams play killed us,” Golden West Coach Ray Shackleford said. “On offense we didn’t do a very good job either.”

Salisbury, whose 316 yards-per-game passing average was the state’s best, was 24 of 33 for a season-low 233 yards. His only touchdown was a 27-yarder to Myron Wise with 5:15 left in the second quarter to take a 7-0 lead.

Palomar was held to 386 yards in total offense, more than 100 yards below its 494 yards-per-game average.

Golden West’s only score came after Palomar’s first-half touchdown.

Running back Frank Vaccaro ran six times for 44 yards in the drive and Brunet capped it with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Troy Walker with 1:59 left.

Vaccaro had 81 yards in 20 tries and Brunet was nine of 23 for 109 yards.