Renegades' miscues costly in SoCal semifinal game
| Saturday, Nov 28 2009 11:11 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Nov 28 2009 11:20 PM
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Bakersfield College running back Ben Estill, left, takes the handoff from quarterback Logan Kilgore during the first half of Saturday's game.
Mount San Antonio College defensive lineman Kapono Asuega, left, wraps his arm around BC quarterback Logan Kilgore during Saturday's game in Walnut.
Mount San Antonio College defensive back Ronnie Goforth, left, steps in front of Bakersfield College receiver Rishard Matthews and deflects a pass.
WALNUT -- Don't try telling Bakersfield College's players and coaches they were blown out Saturday by Mount San Antonio College.
The Mounties won 39-17 in the Southern California junior college semifinals, but it was 23-17 until Jeremy Brown's fourth field goal of the game, a 28-yarder with 2:09 left, made it a two-score lead.
The Mounties (11-1) returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the final 1:31 for the final margin. The Renegades, a SoCal semifinalist for the fourth time in five seasons, finish 10-2.
"If anybody looks at the score they'll see a blowout," said BC sophomore running back Ben Estill, who had both Renegade touchdowns in his final junior college game. "But if they were here, they would have known it was a fighting game. ... When you get two good teams together, it's the one that makes the fewest mistakes that's going to win."
Mount SAC, ranked No. 1 in the state and seeded No. 1 in the SoCal playoffs, will try for its third straight SoCal title next Saturday against No. 6 Palomar, which beat No. 2 Fullerton 38-36 in triple overtime on Saturday afternoon.
BC had three interceptions and lost a fumble while the Mounties had one turnover, a pass deflected by Renegade defensive tackle Corey Wright that was intercepted by defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford.
That gave BC the ball near midfield with 10:21 left and Mount SAC clinging to a 23-17 lead.
BC reached the Mount SAC 19, then took a 2-yard loss to set up Josh Gallington for a potential 38-yard field goal that BC hoped would make it 23-20. But the kick was blocked with 7:04 left. As it turned out, that was the final Renegade threat.
"Gallington's been money all year," said BC coach Jeff Chudy. "We were playing good defense at the time. ... With our field goal kicker and the way we can return the ball, I liked the call. I think it was the right decision at the time."
Earlier, Gallington's streak of 16 straight successful field goals ended when he was short on a 48-yard attempt, which would have been the longest in his career. He made a 26-yard field goal with 12:01 left in the fourth quarter to pull BC within 23-17.
BC quarterback Logan Kilgore was 15-of-30 for 225 yards but had the three interceptions. He was also pressured throughout the game by the Mounties' big, quick linemen and linebackers.
Mount SAC quarterback Matt Faulkner hurt BC with big-yardage plays throughout the first half. He had a 66-yard TD pass to wideout Jesse Canada to open the scoring and had passing plays of 34 and 57 yards later in the first quarter. And the Mounties also had an option pass for 32 yards in the first quarter.
"By far this was the best line we've faced," Crawford said. "They're really big and it was really hard to get off on the pass rush. We did what we could do."
The Mounties had a 10-0 first quarter lead and made it 20-0 in the second quarter before Estill's TD runs of 1 and 30 yards made it 20-14 at halftime.
"We got an extra boost when we got it to 20-14," said wide receiver Rishard Matthews, who had seven catches for 140 yards. "I thought we played real good. We just didn't come through."
Mount SAC had 299 first-half passing yards but only 35 in the second half. The Mounties did run the ball effectively at times over the final two quarters, particularly Kolby Arendse, who had 98 yards, mostly out of a wildcat formation.
"Way too many big plays in the first half," Chudy said. "We got big-played to death, and a lot of them happened on third down."
But Chudy praised the way his club tightened things up after that.
"We settled down and played some pretty good defense," Chudy said. "We had chances to go up and we didn't. We were in the red zone a couple of times and didn't get points out of it... There's a reason they outscored us. They made some big plays. We didn't. I'm extremely proud of how we competed until the bitter end."
Estill finished with a game-high 99 rushing yards on 23 carries. He became the 13 th player in school history with more than 1,000 yards in a season, finishing with 1,061.
Canada had six catches for 136 yards for Mount SAC and Faulkner finished 21-of-39 for 302 yards.
