Antelope Valley Easily Handles Ventura

Antelope Valley College’s home opener against Ventura on Saturday night was a true test of patience for Coach Brent Carder.

The Marauders committed five turnovers, squandered numerous scoring opportunities--and still buried Ventura, 35-0, in a nonconference game.

Antelope Valley stymied Ventura’s run-and-shoot offense, which made its debut.

“We are not a mature enough team to (make) those kind of mistakes,” Carder said. “We were fortunate that it was Ventura’s opener because we did a poor job executing offensively.”

With the victory, Carder moved into fifth place for wins by an active junior college coach nationally with a record of 136-97-5.

“We were lucky to have seen an offense like the run-and-shoot last week,” Carder said. “It was a big advantage for us going into this week.”

Last week Valley quarterback Sean Fitzgerald passed for 196 yards against the Marauders.

Antelope Valley (1-1), which won its sixth straight home game, limited Ventura to 52 yards of total offense. The Marauders also forced five turnovers.

Mike Marsh started Antelope Valley’s scoring when he took a fake punt 53 yards down the right sideline early in the first quarter.

Antelope Valley extended its lead to 14-0 on a 16-yard pass from quarterback Todd Fink to Jeff Del Salto.

The third quarter was especially sloppy as the teams combined for seven turnovers.

Antelope Valley finally pulled away with 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Marsh finished with 140 yards in 16 carries and had touchdown runs of 53 and 11 yards.

Ventura quarterback David Andrade attempted 22 passes and completed seven with three interceptions before being replaced in the fourth quarter by Greg Yeager.

Antelope Valley limited Ventura to an average of less than one yard per play.

Idanre Anderson scored on a five-yard run and David McCovy scored on a 57-yard run to complete Antelope Valley’s scoring.