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The Long Beach City College football team’s search for their first win will have to wait after they couldn’t overcome three turnovers in a 38-7 loss to Southwestern Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“That’s honestly the killer,” Cooper said. “We turned the ball in the three turnovers basically in the red zone. You can’t win games like that.”
Coach Marques Cooper has talked about the team playing four quarters of clean football, but that quickly turned south on the opening drive as LBCC drove right into Southwestern territory, but Wyatt McCauley was sacked and fumbled on the play and Southwestern came up with the ball.
The Jaguars took advantage of the turnover and went right to work as Brayten Silbor found a wide-open Clint Thomas who scored on a 48-yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead with 12:05 left in the first quarter.
LBCC (0-3) strung together a couple first downs on their next drive but were forced to punt. Southwestern moved right into Vikings territory on the next drive thanks to a flag.
Thanks to some sloppy tackling Silbor kept the sticks moving and then tossed his second touchdown of the quarter to Josiah Jefferso for an 11-yard touchdown to put the Jaguars up 14-0 with 4:30 remaining in the first.
The Vikings early offensive struggles continued as they were forced to punt for a second time, however the LBCC defense showed some life and forced Southwestern to punt. With a sense of urgency, the Vikings went for it inside their own territory on fourth and short and Lynnden Hodge picked up the first down to move the chains.
Allen Fernett kept the Vikings moving as he connected with Owen Tomich and Samples for a couple of first downs. However, Southwestern’s Carson Curtis forced a Samples fumble to stall the drive as the Jaguars recover the ball to take over on their 10-yard-line.
LBCC’s defense continued to dial in the pressure and forced a punt to give the offense the ball back on the Southwestern 38.
Facing 3rd and 17, Fernett came up with a 15-yard run and then converted the fourth and 2 with a 3-yard kept to keep the drive alive. However, the Vikings had to settle for a field goal and it was no good.
The Vikings defense continued to give their defense an opportunity and after the Jaguars drove to the 28-yard-line, LBCC came up with a big fourth down stop to put the offense back on the field with 50 seconds remaining in the first half. The Vikings elected to let time expire to head to the half down 14-0.
Southwestern started the third quarter focusing on their ground attack and it worked as they drove 61 yards on 7 plays and Silbor kept himself for a 1-yard TD. Jamarei Ashby had six carries for 60 yards to get the Jaguars inside the red zone.
LBCC got things going as Fernett found a couple of his receivers in Kyle Brown and Justin Auston and Devin Samples scored one a 2-yard run to cut the Southwestern’s lead to 21-7. Fernett finished the game 24-38 for 267 yards and one touchdown. The sophomore connected with eight different pass catchers with Justin Auston and Owen Tomich combining for 15 catches and 167 yards.
“Allen came in and actually did a really good job for us with Wyatt going down and not being able to go for us,” Cooper said. “He’s a sophomore and led us down the field.”
Needing some stops to give their offense a chance to come back, the Vikings came up with a third down stop and Southwestern’s Jacob Cuevas scored on a 38-yard field goal to push the Jaguars lead to 24-7 lead with 2:35 left in the third.
Fernett continued to move the ball down field and spread the ball around to his pass catchers Owen Tomich and Kyle Brown to get the Vikings into the red zone, but a fumble stalled the drive as Southwestern came up with the ball.
The Jaguars took advantage of the turnover and Silbor led Southwestern right into Vikings’ territory and he connected with Caleb Blocker for a 34-yard touchdown to push the lead to 31-7 with 11:55 left in the fourth.
Long Beach City College will be on the road next week when they head north to take on Santa Barbara.
