Santa Monica, CA (Football) – On a rainy Southern California day, that would leave the field muddy and wet in Santa Monica, the Citrus College football team knew that they would have to switch their offensive mindset from an aerial attack to a grind it out ground game. The Fighting Owl’s were able to do just that on the back of Marquis Winbush, who posted Citrus’ first individual 100 yard game of the season on Saturday night. Winbush finished the game with 131 yards and two touchdowns, on their way to a 13-7 victory over the Corsairs.
On the Owl’s opening drive, Citrus moved the ball down to the Santa Monica 26-yard line. After three straight plays that yielded only two yards, Citrus decided to go for it on fourth and nine. Quarterback John Garcia tried to hit tight end Tyson Hetzer for the first down, but the ball fell incomplete and the Fighting Owl’s turned the ball over on downs.
With the ball on their own 25 yard line, it was the Corsairs turn to take over on offense. The Citrus defense, which has laid its claim as one of the best in the state, flexed its muscle early on, holding Santa Monica to two yards on its opening drive, and forcing a quick four and out.
With the ball back in their hands, the Citrus running game began to take over. Isaac Nealy got things going with back to back 13 yard rushes, to push the Fighting Owl offense into enemy territory at the Santa Monica 30 yard line. Winbush then followed that up with a 9-yard rush of his own, and after a 20-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Santa Monica, the Fighting Owl’s found themselves with 1st and goal on the SMC 1-yard line. After a reverse to Mark Castaneda resulted in a loss of four yards, Winbush punched the ball in on a five yard TD run.
From there the Citrus offense struggled. After the Citrus defense forced back to back four and out’s, the Fighting Owl’s followed that up offensively with back to back turnovers, after Garcia threw an interception and Nealy fumbled the ball. Both teams would trade the ball back and forth with the Citrus defense continuing to dominate. In the 1st half alone, the Fighting Owl defense held the Corsair’s offense to under six plays each offensive possession. Neither team would make more head-way in the 1st half, with both teams going back to the locker rooms with score at 7-0.
Late in the third quarter Citrus would get on the board again. After Santa Monica’s punt from their own 10-yard line went just 16 yards, the Owl’s took advantage of the short field on the SMC 26-yard line. Winbush would get his second score of the game, after he rushed for 14 yards to give the Owl’s a 13-0 lead.
Three possession changes later, the Citrus defense would give up their lone big play of the game, when Santa Monica’s Cedric Hayes broke free on a 4th and one situation, and ran 45 yards for the Corsair’s only score of the night.
In the win, quarterback John Garcia struggled completing eight of his 22 attempts, and throwing two interceptions. While Citrus’ struggled through the air, they were magnificent on the ground. Along with Winbush’s 131 yards, Citrus got 51 yards on just six carries from Isaac Nealy. Defensively, Citrus was led by Devin Johnson (6 tackles), Justing Luiten (5.5 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss), and Paul Clark (4.5 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 pass break-up, and 1 interception).
With the win the Fighting Owls improve to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play. Citrus will be on the road again next week, for its third conference match-up with LA Valley. The Monarchs are coming off their first win of the season, as they beat Compton College 14-6 last Saturday. Kick-off is set for 7:00 PM.
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