COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Fullerton’s Victory Over Saddleback Isn’t Thing of Beauty

On a night when neither coach was happy with the way his team played, Fullerton’s Gene Murphy found the most important aspect--the final score.

Fullerton beat Saddleback, 35-19, in a Mission Conference Central Division game Saturday at Fullerton District Stadium.

“It was thing of beauty,” Murphy said, sarcastically. “But the true thing of beauty is the scoreboard. It’s a roller-coaster ride each. I know I feel a lot better than I did last week at this time.”

Fullerton lost to Cerritos, 34-19, last week.

The Hornets (2-2-1, 1-0) opened a 17-0 lead Saturday with the help of quarterback Marc O’Brien, who scored on runs of 41 and one yard.

Saddleback narrowed the lead to 17-10 early in the third and had a chance to score again. The Gauchos reached the Fullerton five with about four minutes left in the quarter.

But an illegal procedure penalty moved the Gauchos back to the 10. Quarterback Pat Wood threw two passes that fell incomplete, and on third down, Wood scrambled three yards.

Saddleback tried some chicanery on fourth down with a halfback pass from Greg Payne back to quarterback Wood, but Wood was covered and the ball fell incomplete.

Saddleback reached the Fullerton 25 on its next possession but its field-goal try was blocked.

“When the real defense shows up and played their butts off,” Murphy said, “they did a great job.”

Fullerton then put the game away with three four-quarter touchdowns. Jeff Willis scored on a one-yard run with 11:58 left and Elphamous Malbrue scored on four-yard run with 2:28 left.

James Hartford added a 45-yard kickoff return for a touchdown off a botched onside kick try with 1:16 left.

Joshua Payseno scored on two one-yard runs for Saddleback (0-4-1, 0-1-1).

In another Mission Conference game:

San Diego Mesa 28, Orange Coast 21--Shon King caught touchdown passes of six and 62 yards from Aaron Buckner in the last six minutes to lift host Mesa. Jeff Clayton rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns, and became OCC’s all-time leading rusher with 1,983, breaking Tony Accomando’s record of 1,873 set in 1974-75.

King caught 12 passes for 292 yards for Mesa (3-2, 3-1).

At the Santa Barbara Community College Cross-Country Invitational:

Orange Coast women finish first--Erin Remy finished third with a time of 19:32 at Shoreline Park to lead Orange Coast, which finished first with 111 points. Ventura finished second with 118 points and Rancho Santiago (147) placed fourth.

Elizabeth Pelay finished 11th and Carrie Appell was 14th for the Pirates.

Rancho Santiago (115) finished third in the men’s division behind champion Glendale (24). Orange Coast finished in eight place.

Mike Hancock was the highest finisher for the Pirates. He finished 26th with a time of 22:51.

At the Cuesta water polo tournament:

Golden West takes championship--Golden West (18-1) swept three pool-play games to win the Cuesta tournament.

Ryk Wormgoor had eight goals in the Golden West’s victories over Cuesta, 14-6, West Valley, 15-6, and Diablo Valley, 11-9.