Victorville, CA(Football) – As the old adage goes, “defense wins championships.” If the saying is true, the 2007 edition of the Fighting Owls may be on their way to a fifth straight conference championship. The Citrus College defense was absolutely lights out in Saturday afternoon’s 20-0 win over Victor Valley. The defense was so dominate that it held the Rams to just 18 yards and no first downs in the first half.
While the defense was tried and true, the offense showed a lot more signs of life this week than it did last week against Orange Coast College. After winning the toss and electing to receive the Fighting Owls offense promptly marched 80 yards in nine plays to get the first score of the game and get a 7-0 lead.
Probably most crucial to the offenses success was the ability of the Citrus running backs to get big chunks of yards throughout the game. Both Isaac Nealy and Aaron Ridgeway ran for over 60 yards, while starting running back Marquis Winbush added 42 yards to the mix. All in all the Owls gained 170 yards on the ground.
Citrus would strike again on their first possession in the 2nd quarter. This time it would be a 10 play 71 yard drive that would lead to a Fighting Owl score. John Garcia would hit Michael Shay, who made a one-handed 33 yard grab in the end zone to give Citrus a 14-0 lead going into halftime.
With the opening up of the running game, quarterback John Garcia and his wide receiver corps began to soar. Michael Shay was the biggest beneficiary of it all, as he put up a stellar performance catching six passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns. Shay’s second touchdown came in the 3rd quarter, when Garcia hit him for a 28 yard strike to give the Owls a 20-0 lead, after the failed extra point attempt.
The Citrus College defense was so dominant that it only faced one goal line situation which came in the 3rd quarter. After a false start pushed the Rams back to the Citrus 13 yard line with first and goal, sophomore linebacker Demarcus Flanagan forced a fumble, but the Rams were able to recover and gain positive yardage to the Citrus five yard line. On the very next play the Rams ran it down to within a foot of the goal line, but Jonathan Davies stopped them just short. On 3rd and goal, Flanagan forced yet another fumble that ended up in the Citrus end zone, this time however, the Owls pounced on the ball as Paul Clark scooped up the fumble recovery and took a touchback, giving the Owls the ball back on offense yet again.
Citrus dominated the stat sheet in every category. The Owl’s held a 15 minute time of possession advantage, and out-gained the Rams on offense by over 200 yards. The one downfall for the Fighting Owls was turnovers, as Garcia was strapped with two interceptions.
Despite his two picks, Garcia still finished the day with a positive afternoon completing 17 of his 31 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns. Jonathan Davies and Devin Johnson were the teams leading tacklers as each recorded five tackles a piece. The Owls front seven continued to wreak havoc by recording five sacks, with Jacob Murphy getting credit for one and half.
With the win the Fighting Owls improve to 1-1 on the season, while Victor Valley falls to 0-2. The Fighting Owls will be back home next Saturday as they open up their conference slate with a match-up against Compton College. Kick-off is set for 7:00 PM.
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