Glendale Community College football gets another crack at Santa Monica
Glendale Community College football coach John Rome works with his team during practice on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015.
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During the last couple of seasons, the Glendale Community College and Santa Monica football teams have battled for supremacy in the Pacific Conference American Division.
Santa Monica and Glendale finished first and second, respectively, before advancing to bowl games last season. While the Vaqueros would like to wrest the division title away from the Corsairs, they are more focused on trying to end a three-game losing streak.
Glendale will have an opportunity to get back on track when it meets visiting Santa Monica at 7 p.m. Saturday at Sartoris Field.
“We’ve had some very tight games with Santa Monica the last few seasons and we know they have an outstanding team filled with extremely talented athletes,” said Glendale Coach John Rome, whose team began division action Sept. 26 with a 27-16 home defeat against L.A. Pierce. “We’d like to challenge, but we have some things we need to iron out first.
“We need to start winning the battle in turnovers. We got turnovers last season in bushels and now we’ve only been able to get one through the first four games.”
Glendale (1-3, 0-1 in the division) gave up four turnovers against Pierce. The Vaqueros have committed 11 turnovers in their first four contests.
Glendale, which is 0-2 at home, never led against Pierce and has averaged 15 points per game in its last two contests.
Against Pierce, freshman quarterback Grant Kraemer completed eight of 21 passes for 68 yards. He tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Anthony McGinnis to bring Glendale to within 20-9 in the third quarter. Overall, Kraemer has completed 63 of 125 passes for 969 yards and eight touchdowns. Since throwing for a school-record 488 yards in Glendale’s season-opening 35-31 nonconference road win against East L.A. on Sept. 5, Kraemer has passed for 481 yards.
Santa Monica (3-0) began division competition Sept. 26 with a 54-40 road win against Antelope Valley. The Corsairs, who are averaging 56.6 points per game, have won 28 straight division matchups and will make their first appearance at Glendale since 2012. Their last division loss came Nov. 13, 2010, against West L.A.
The Corsairs saw quarterback Troy Williams complete 22 of 38 passes for 376 yards and three touchdowns against Antelope Valley. Terry Jackson Jr. caught five passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns and Roger Jones rushed for 140 yards in 16 carries and a pair of touchdowns. Williams has completed 52 of 87 attempts for 910 yards and nine touchdowns overall.
Santa Monica has won five straight matchups against Glendale, including a 48-31 win last season. The Corsairs are ranked 24th in the state and second in the California Community College Southern California American Division Regional State poll behind Victor Valley.
