Palomar Punishes Santa Ana, 58-14

Tom Nelson, the Santa Ana College defensive coordinator, had two difficult jobs Saturday.

First, he had to watch as his unit was thrashed by Palomar in a 58-14 Mission Conference Central Division loss at San Marcos High.

Then later Saturday he had to go through it all again when he explained what happened to Coach Dave Ogas, who missed the game to watch his son Mike play wide receiver for Cal State Northridge.

“When [Ogas] calls,” Nelson said jokingly, “he’s going to throw up.”

Nelson had some harsher words for his unit that three times allowed receivers to get behind defensive backs for easy touchdowns. Palomar scored on the first play from scrimmage and finished the first quarter ahead 35-0 and was up 42-0, 12 seconds into the second quarter.

The game was a showdown of teams undefeated in divisional play and Santa Ana was considered the best candidate in the division to slow Palomar (7-1, 3-0), which is ranked ninth in the nation by the J.C. Grid-Wire. Santa Ana is 2-6, 2-1.

“The bottom line is our defense gave up,” Nelson said. “I don’t know why right now but I’m going to find out. That’s not the way we practiced and that’s not the way they are coached.

“I can’t do anything about apathy.”

Palomar’s defense, in contrast to Santa Ana’s, was inspired from the outset. The Comets used a strong pass rush to sack Santa Ana quarterback Archie Lappin three times in the first quarter.

Lappin, skilled at avoiding the rush, had nowhere to go but down. He completed one of his first eight passes with one interception returned by Bishop Miller 42 yards for a touchdown. The touchdown put Palomar up 21-0.

But the Santa Ana offensive line finally stabilized and Lappin completed 10 passes in a row at one point and finished 17 of 26 for 226 yards. But he was sacked a season-high four times and finished with minus-23 yards rushing and also fumbled on one of the sacks to set up a Palomar touchdown.

The Comets converted three of Santa Ana’s four first-half turnovers into touchdowns.

Camron King scored on runs of one and nine yards for Santa Ana.

“You could not have told me this was going to happen,” Nelson said. “I thought we would win 35-28 or something like that.”