Orange Coast Stops Antelope Valley

Antelope Valley College brought one of the state’s best defenses into the Orange County Bowl Saturday night at Orange Coast College.

But Orange Coast had a much more formidable force--freshman tailback Jeff Clayton.

Clayton rushed for a bowl-record 240 yards as the Pirates won, 26-14.

It was the eighth game this season that Clayton, co-most valuable player of the Mission Conference, rushed for 100 or more yards.

He scored on runs of 23 and 56 yards for Orange Coast (8-3). His 56-yard scoring run, on a delay around the right side, gave the Pirates a 26-7 lead with 8 minutes 39 seconds left.

“I had no idea I had that many yards,” Clayton said. “I figured I had like 150 or so. When I heard that I had 240, I was blown away.”

Orange Coast led, 7-0, at halftime but Antelope Valley (6-5) tied it five minutes into the second half on a seven-yard touchdown run by quarterback Todd Fink.

But the lead didn’t last long. Orange Coast came back to take the lead, 14-7, on a 12-yard touchdown run by quarterback Todd Mather with 6:14 left in the third quarter.

The Pirates made it 20-7 on a 39-yard pass play from Mather to Ryan Blanchard with 1:04 left in third quarter.

“Once we established the run, we figured we could get a long (pass) somewhere and we did,” said Bill Workman, Orange Coast coach.

Antelope Valley’s defense was allowing 260 yards a game, eighth best in the state. But Orange Coast gained 354 yards--294 rushing.

The Marauders got 274 yards in total offense.

The Pirates’ first touchdown came on 23-yard run by Clayton with 3:07 left in the half.

Clayton had a 47-yard run three plays before to put Orange Coast on the Antelope Valley 20.

Antelope Valley had a first down at the Orange Coast 11 midway in the first quarter but lost seven yards on three plays. Russell Gordon’s 35-yard field-goal attempt was blocked by Efriam Miranda.