Pirates open up with big bang

COSTA MESA — The Orange Coast Collge football team took only seconds to make an explosive first impression.

Before some fans found their seats for Saturday night’s opener against Santa Barbara City College, that potential had found the end zone.

Freshman Nathan Barnett returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown and the Pirates rolled to a 39-7 win over the Vaqueros at OCC.

“There were some great things,” Coach Mike Taylor said. “Honestly, special teams did a great job and the opening kickoff was awesome. Defensively, we’re real young and we ran around like I thought we would.”

Barnett took the opening kickoff and found open field toward the Vaqueros’ sideline. He veered back toward the center of the field and evaded a diving tackle attempt by Santa Barbara kicker Zach Criswell at about the 30-yard line.

“We were talking about it in practice, and we planned it out pretty well,” Barnett said. “We took it to the right side, and took it up the seam. The momentum just went up on the sideline after that play, and we didn’t stop.”

Brock Jaramillo added a 22-yard field goal to give the Pirates a 9-0 first-quarter lead, then special teams came up big again.

After OCC’s next possession, punter C.J. Santiago booted a 67-yard punt out of bounds at the Santa Barbara one-yard line.

On the Vaqueros’ next play from scrimmage, running back Willie Alexander was wrapped up about five yards deep in the end zone by the Pirates’ Derrell Perkins. The safety pushed the lead to 11-0.

Orange Coast sophomore Chris Assily returned the ensuing free kick 43 yards to the Vaqueros’ 30-yard line.

On fourth-and-one at the Santa Barbara 10, OCC quarterback Kekoa Crowell tried the sneak.

Running to the left side behind center Luke Sapolu and left guard Bryce Carich — both Costa Mesa High products — Crowell went untouched into the end zone to give the Pirates an 18-0 lead.

The Pirates added to that lead two plays later, when linebacker Matt Harris picked up a fumble and rambled in from 17 yards out.

“The defense played really well and put a good helmet on those guys,” Barnett said. “They’re young, but they helped us get in the end zone.”

Santa Barbara scored its only points with just six seconds left in the half, when backup quarterback J.T. Grantin found receiver Ernie Pierce for a 29-yard score.

It eliminated the hope of a shutout, which is what Orange Coast did to Santa Barbara in last year’s 11-0 season-opening win. Still, the Vaqueros didn’t get a first down in this year’s contest until 6:34 before halftime.

“We should have shut them out this year, too, but we just didn’t manage the clock well,” Taylor said. “We threw the ball in our previous possession, which stopped the clock and gave them time. But you can’t argue about a 39-7 win.”

Crowell and highly touted freshman running back Andrew Banks failed to produce anything worthy of a highlight reel.

Banks carried 22 times for 80 yards, but just two of those went for more than 10 yards.

“It was tough,” Banks said. “The tempo is much faster than it was in [last week’s] scrimmage against Santa Monica. But we just wanted to come out and show everybody what were about. The defense was tremendous.”

OCC added two more touchdowns in the second half, on Banks’ two-yard run in the third quarter and Raul Ballas’ one-yard dive into the end zone in the fourth quarter.

Justin Montes also had five fourth-quarter carries, as the Pirates continued to dominate time of possession.

The Pirates had the ball more than 40 minutes of the 60-minute contest.

“I was happy to see Ballas do well and Montes, and Andrew Banks had some nice runs,” Taylor said. “We just need to fine tune a little bit.”