Palomar Offense Piercing in 58-24 Victory

The quarterback and the coach have changed, but the result was the same for defending national champion Palomar College in its opener Saturday night against Pierce.

Palomar overcame a sluggish start to run away with a 58-24 victory over the Brahmas in a nonconference game. It was the 20th consecutive victory for the Comets over three seasons.

With Thom Kaumeyer making his debut as coach and Greg Wilbur playing his first game at quarterback, the Comets didn’t record a first down until early in the second quarter. Once they did, there was no stopping them.

The Comets scored 49 consecutive points to make it a rout by the third quarter.

Pierce led, 8-2, late in the first quarter on an 11-yard touchdown pass from David Muir to Jibri Hodge and a two-point conversion run by Rodney Williams.

That was when Wilbur and the Palomar passing attack assumed control. Wilbur was asked to replace Tommy Luginbill, who passed for 3,701 yards last season and has become the starting quarterback at Georgia Tech.

He completed 24 of 34 passes for 371 yards and four touchdowns, all of the scores coming in the second quarter when Palomar scored 29 points for a 31-8 halftime lead.

Wilbur threw two of his touchdown passes to Shane Cartwright and the others went to receivers Chris Baker and Thomas Gamelin.

Palomar extended its lead to 51-8 in the third quarter before Pierce made it a little closer with two touchdowns in the fourth.

Pierce struggled in its first game with Muir at quarterback. This time, he completed 15 of 29 for 115 yards and two touchdowns.

The Brahmas had 207 total yards, only 15 rushing.