Culver City, CA (Football) -- The Citrus College football team held off a late LA Southwest comeback, to pick up their first win of the season on Saturday afternoon, a 17-13 triumph over the Cougars. Freshman quarterback Austin Goldsmith completed 22 of his 42 passes for 242 yards and 1 touchdown, in helping lead the Owls to victory.
After struggling to get any semblance of their offense going throughout the first and most of the second quarter, the Owls would finally get on board when Goldsmith hooked up with sophomore wide-receiver Josh Adams for a 20-yard score with just under a minute to play in the first half.
The Owls would continue their offensive roll in the third quarter with a 32 yard Kyle Eden field goal, and a 1-yard Andrew Couch touchdown run, that would push the Citrus lead to 17-7 with just four minutes to go in the third.
Trailing by 10 points late in the fourth quarter, LA Southwest began to battle back, scoring on a 2-yard Marlon Jennings touchdown run that cut the lead to four after the Owls blocked the Southwest extra-point attempt.
After forcing the Owls to go three and out, Southwest got the ball back and found themselves on the Citrus 10-yard line with just over a minute to play and chance to take the lead.
That’s when Citrus’ defense, which had its best game to date, stepped up. Freshman Bronze Withem forced Cougar’s back up quarterback Arthur Fields to fumble on the 9-yard line, and Citrus recovered on their own 1-yard line, preserving Citrus’ first win of the year.
In the win, Citrus racked up 268 yards of offense, while holding LA Southwest to just 198 total yards. Citrus’ defense was led again by freshman linebacker Bronze Withem who followed up last weeks 15 tackle performance, with a 12 tackle, 1 sack game against the Cougars.
The Fighting Owls will try to build on Saturday’s win, as they come back home for their final pre-conference game of the season as they square off against Allan Hancock next Saturday. Kick-off is set for 7:00 PM.
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