Glendale Community College football gears up for home opener
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A close defeat in the opening week of the season isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm.
Glendale Community College football coach John Rome took some positives and negatives that he’s addressed with his squad heading into a nonconference home game against San Diego Southwestern at 6 p.m. Saturday at Sartoris Field.
“The way I look at it, we hung in there against a very talented team, one of the most talented teams we’ll face this year,” said Rome, whose team suffered a 17-10 defeat against Golden West on Saturday. “We struggled on offense and we made some gaffes on special teams. However, we hung in there from a defensive standpoint.
“The mistakes we made can be fixed and they will be. We’re young just about everywhere and they are learning to find ways to get better. We have another good test with Southwestern and we’ll see how much we can improve from the previous week.”
Glendale finished with just 186 yards of offense against Golden West. Glendale freshman quarterback Michael Bonds, a St. Francis High product, completed 16 of 27 passes for 88 yards and one touchdown. Bonds tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to Felipe Meza to give the Vaqueros a 7-3 lead with 1:43 remaining in the second quarter. Meza rushed for 62 yards in 12 carries.
Golden West, which registered 267 yards of offense, got a game-winning touchdown with 11:59 left in the fourth quarter.
Glendale defensive back Cody Taniguchi and linebacker Teddy Gallagher finished with eight and seven tackles, respectively.
Like Glendale, Southwestern kicked off its campaign Saturday with a narrow loss. Southwestern started off with a 38-31 nonconference home setback against Palomar.
Southwestern trailed, 13-0, after the first quarter before pulling to within 28-21 at halftime. Palomar held a 38-21 lead midway through the fourth quarter before Southwestern scored the final 10 points.
Southwestern quarterback Justua Cartwright completed 19 of 34 passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns. Slotback Nick Sexton caught both touchdown passes and finished with six receptions for 77 yards. The Jaguars rolled up 317 yards of offense, but yielded 485.
Linebacker Cameron Hanson had seven tackles for Southwestern, which posted a 27-14 home win against Glendale and split the American Mountain Conference title with College of the Desert last season.
“Southwestern has a good offense, but they seem young in the secondary,” Rome said.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
