Moorpark Hits Riverside Early, Hangs On to Post 23-21 Upset

There is a proverb that posits that once on the tiger’s back it can be rather difficult to choose the exact time and place to dismount.

Moorpark College all but lived the experience Saturday night before finding refuge behind a die-hard defensive effort to emerge with a 23-21 upset of the visiting Riverside Tigers in a nonconference football opener at Griffin Stadium.

Moorpark burst to a 23-0 halftime lead and held off a furious comeback by Riverside, ranked No. 2 in the nation by J.C. Grid-Wire. Victory was secured only when Moorpark’s Johnel Turner corraled an onside kick with a little more than a minute to play.

“We were fighting the clock,” said Moorpark receiver Curtis Marsh, who had four receptions and a 56-yard touchdown pass on a fake reverse. “The way they were running the ball, who knows what could have happened. But we won the game. We didn’t want them to come in our house and take a victory out.”

That mission was accomplished, for the most part, in the first half as the Raiders and freshman quarterback Corey Tucker did the job offensively.

Tucker came out throwing in his college debut. Setting the tone for a productive night, he connected with tight end Jerry Edwards on a 32-yard pass play on his first attempt. Tucker completed 11 of 21 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown.

“I was nervous all day until I got on the field,” said Tucker, an option quarterback at Camarillo High who is rapidly developing his passing game. “My teammates took all the nervousness away.”

The Raiders opened the scoring early in the first quarter when fullback Jamal Anderson culminated a five-play, 52-yard scoring march with a five-yard touchdown run up the middle. The drive began when Tucker hooked up with Marsh for a 39-yard pass play.

With the score 10-0 after Andy Petroski booted a 27-yard field goal, an 88-yard touchdown by Marsh was wiped out by a holding penalty.

But Marsh, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound sophomore from Simi Valley, made the most of another opportunity early in the second quarter when he took a reverse handoff and threw to a wide open Tim Blakely for a 56-yard touchdown and a 16-0 lead.

Moorpark completed its first-half scoring blitz with 6:44 left in the half when Anderson took a seemingly harmless screen pass from Tucker and turned it into a 75-yard scoring jaunt.

Riverside, which committed six turnovers, including four in the first half, scored 14 unanswered points in the third quarter.

But the Raider defense, led by nose guard Robert Moose and defensive backs Kenyon Lewis and Chris Gann, thwarted the Tigers’ comeback. Sophomore Eric Stone intercepted a Jack Manu pass with 6:17 left, a key play because Riverside closed the gap to 23-21 on Manu’s one-yard plunge with 1:15 to play