Closing Moments of Openers Turn Ugly for Fullerton, OCC
The closing seconds of season-opening football games were unkind to two local teams Saturday.
Fullerton seemingly had earned an upset of Mt. San Antonio with a late touchdown, only to have the Mounties rally for a 39-39 tie. Mt. San Antonio started the season as the J.C. Grid-Wire’s top-ranked team.
Orange Coast trailed Pasadena, 24-0, at the half, came back to go ahead, 25-24, only to lose, 27-25, on a field goal in the closing seconds.
In the Fullerton game, Mt. San Antonio scored on a 22-yard touchdown pass with no time left, but the Hornets avoided the loss when Mt. San Antonio kicker Rodrigo Vera’s point-after attempt was wide left.
“It was a very exciting game for people in the stands,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said. “But it wasn’t very exciting to me . . . I saw on ‘20/20’ the other night that ulcers aren’t caused by stress. They’re caused by bacteria. I feel a lot better knowing that.
“I’m not very happy about the tie, but as we look at the tape you can see we did a lot of positive things. (Mt. San Antonio) was bigger, stronger and faster but our kids flew around and made some things happen.”
Fullerton has a week off before a home game against El Camino on Sept. 24.
“I wish we had a bye after every game,” Murphy said. “Saturday was maybe the fourth time we have been in full pads all season. We have plenty of skill people, but we just don’t have the depth with the (linemen). We can’t risk getting hurt in practice.”
Orange Coast doesn’t have the luxury of an extra week to get ready. The Pirates travel to Cerritos Saturday for a 7 p.m. game.
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Cross-country: The Orange Empire Conference, probably the best overall conference in the state, holds a preview run Saturday at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa.
The first of four races begins at 9 a.m.
The run establishes the early-season favorites for the conference finals, Nov. 5 at Fairview.
Irvine Valley is the defending conference and State champion. Orange Coast was second to Irvine Valley in the conference and State meets last season.
Riverside won the men’s conference title.
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Water polo: Golden West, which has won the last five State titles under Coach Ken Hamdorf, is the top-ranked team in the community college water polo poll.
The Rustlers started the season by winning the Ventura tournament last Saturday. The Rustlers (5-0) beat Citrus, 8-7, in the title game. John Chomin led Golden West with 21 goals. He is a returning sophomore but not a member of a State tournament team.
Chomin, from Los Alamitos High School, played at Golden West in 1988 when the Rustlers lost in the championship game to Long Beach. He then spent time in the Navy before returning to college this fall.
Golden West will get a chance to prove its ranking this weekend when the Rustlers play in the Cuesta tournament. Including Golden West, seven of the top nine teams in the state are entered.
The Rustlers will be joined by No. 2 Long Beach, No. 3 Grossmont, No. 4 Orange Coast, No. 5 Cuesta, No. 7 West Valley and No. 8 Diablo Valley.
Orange Coast, which figures to have a team strong enough to challenge Golden West, went 2-1 in the San Diego Mesa mini-tournament during the weekend. The Pirates’ loss was to Grossmont, 17-8.
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George Sagen, the second-leading receiver in county history with 174 career receptions, is a reserve at Long Beach. Sagen helped Los Alamitos win Southern Section championships in 1991 and ’92. He accepted a scholarship to Morehead State out of high school but left last spring.
Sagen stood on the sideline watching his former Los Alamitos teammate, Don Ruberio of Golden West, catch an 18-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter of Long Beach’s 35-14 victory Saturday. Sagen played sparingly in the second half.
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Brain Game: Sean Amos from Rancho Santiago and Lucy Jacobs from Saddleback were selected to the 1994 Wilson-California Scholar Athlete Honor Roll.
Amos, an All-Orange Empire Conference forward with the Dons last season, is attending California this fall but not playing basketball. Amos, from Foothill High, had a 3.64 grade-point average at Rancho Santiago.
Jacobs, an all-conference catcher, is a student at UC Irvine. Jacobs, from Capistrano Valley High, had a 3.76 GPA.
Notes
Cypress won its first two women’s soccer games last weekend to run its regular-season winning streak to 32. The Chargers are ranked third in the nation in College Sports magazine this fall. Cypress has 27 shutouts and has allowed five goals during that 32-game streak. . . Bakersfield (1-0) is the top-ranked football team in the weekly Southland poll. Palomar (1-0) is second, Long Beach (1-0) third, Riverside (1-0) fourth, El Camino (1-0) fifth, Mt. San Antonio (0-0-1) sixth, Pasadena (1-0) seventh, Chaffey (1-0) eighth, Los Angeles Valley (1-0) ninth and Cerritos (1-0) is 10th.
Fullerton (0-0-1), Saddleback (0-0) and Orange Coast (0-1) were among the others receiving votes.