Football: Pirates show some spunk in scrimmage

Tony Altobelli

SANTA MONICA - Even Mother Nature knows it’s football season.

With November-like temperatures chilling the field, the Orange Coast

College football showed some mid-season shine in its scrimmage with host

Santa Monica College Thursday night.

“Overall, I was very pleased with what we did out there,” Coach Mike

Taylor said. “We wanted to run a bunch of stuff and see as many people as

we could. We also wanted to get through this thing without anyone getting

hurt and I think we did.”

With the regular season eight days away, OCC finally had an

opportunity to hit an opponent and with the sounds of smacking shoulder

pads and helmets echoing throughout the stadium, the players got their

money’s worth.

“The players are excited to get going,” Taylor said. “It’s important

to look like you’ve been practicing when you play in something like this

and I felt for the most part that we knew what we were doing out there.”

Offensively, the Pirates showed moments of crispness. Freshman

quarterback Nick Higgs led the Bucs to the only two touchdowns of the

game for either team. He scampered in on a 12-yard run and later

connected with wide receiver Jonathan Johnson on a 10-yard touchdown

pass.

“He showed some good poise back there,” Taylor said. “We’ve got three

quarterbacks and all three of them bring different qualities to the

table. I’m guessing they all will get some early playing time before

someone takes it over.”

All three quarterbacks, Higgs, Eddie Johnson (Newport Harbor High) and

Justin Simons received lots of time to find targets thanks to solid

blocking from the entire offensive line.

“They really battled out there,” Taylor said. “Our front five can take

on anyone, in my opinion.”

On the defensive side, OCC kept the Crusaders out of the end zone the

entire contest. Strong play was turned in by sophomores Dustin Davis,

Vance Babin and James Guglielmana, among others.

“There is still a ton of stuff we need to work on and we know it’s

going to be a long, tough season,” Taylor said. “Tonight we got some good

things accomplished and hopefully, we can continue to build on it.”