Glendora, CA (Football) -- It wasn’t pretty, but the Citrus College Football team finally broke through on Saturday afternoon when they picked up a 32-24 victory over visiting LA Southwest College. The Fighting Owls committed over 120 yards worth of penalties and coughed up the ball three times, but as they say a win is a win and Citrus finally got just that.
Things started swimmingly for Citrus as they marched right down the field in their first offensive possession of the game. The Fighting Owls took just eight plays to move the ball 89 yards, getting the first score of the contest on a 10-yard Brandon Stansell scamper into the end-zone.
Citrus would carry that momentum into the second quarter, when they made the game 14-0 after quarterback Byron Ingram connected with Andrew Romero for a 29 yard touchdown pass and catch.
With things seemingly clicking around every turn, the Fighting Owls reached their first hurdle with 6:27 to play in the second quarter. After forcing the Cougars into a three and out, Citrus regained the ball and was looking to add another score.
Facing a third and six, the Owls ran a wide-receiver screen, that LA Southwest linebacker Anthony Bailey jumped the route on, picking off the ball and taking it into the end-zone untouched, making it 14-7.
After stalling out on their next drive, Citrus caught a break when LA Southwest went to punt the ball deep in their own territory. The snap flew over the punter’s head and out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
On the ensuing kickoff Citrus got great field possession and moved the ball back down the field in four plays scoring on a one-yard quarterback sneak by Ingram to give Citrus a 22-7 advantage.
While the game was never really out of Citrus’ control, the Fighting Owls did struggle with being a little sloppy turning the ball over twice in the second half, most notably in the fourth quarter.
With LA Southwest sustaining their best drive of the day, the Citrus defense had to dig in their heals as they were backed up to their own 15-yard line. Southwest quarterback Marcell Dejean dropped back to pass and fired a throw to the end zone where it was picked off by Citrus sophomore linebacker Namari Flentroy.
Instead of falling to the ground, Flentroy ran around and was eventually tackled in the end zone, but was stripped of the ball as he was falling to the ground. Southwest recovered the ball in the end zone and was granted a touchdown.
In the win, Citrus’ defense put forth by far their best effort of the season holding the Cougars to under 150 yards of total offense. Conversely the Citrus offense gained more yards in Saturday’s game than their previous two efforts combined.
Ingram would turn in his best performance of the season, 23 of his 41 passes for 307 yards and one touchdown. Sophomore Damon Baca, was Ingram’s favorite target Saturday, as he hauled in a game high seven catches for 95 yards.
Defensively, the Owls were led by freshman Eric Meraz who recorded a team high 8 tackles, including one for a loss. Sophomore Christyn Lewis also had a strong day with three tackles, one tackle for a loss, and three pass break-ups.
With the win, Citrus improves to 1-2, while LA Southwest moves to 0-3. Citrus’ schedule does not get any easier next week as they travel North to Allan Hancock College next Saturday. The Bulldogs are home to the fourth best rushing attack in Southern California and are 2-0 going into tonight’s tussle with LA Pierce. Kick-off for next week’s game in Santa Maria is set for 6:00 PM.
Box Score