Show-down to the wire

COSTA MESA - Just last season, the rivalry football game between Orange Coast College and neighboring Golden West was renamed the West-Coast Showdown. And, for the second straight season, it proved to be a show-down to the wire.

The host Pirates, ranked No. 19 in the state and No. 11 in Southern California, held on for a 24-21 victory Saturday, though their celebration of an unprecedented third straight win over the Rustlers could not begin without a final sigh of relief after time had expired.

Golden West (0-3) scored two touchdowns in the final 1:46, then recovered an onside kickoff with nine seconds left. After a personal foul and a roughing the passer penalty moved the ball to the OCC 36-yard line with one second remaining, a 53-yard field-goal attempt by Eric Torres came up well short.

The final-play drama capped a wild finish, in which the two teams combined for 31 points in the final 9:24.

“It was an entertaining game,” said OCC Coach Mike Taylor, who saw OCC even the all-time series record at 20-20-2. “[Pirates’ tailback] Ray Holley scored too fast on that last touchdown [with 55 seconds remaining]. We needed to take more time off the clock. But that’s a typical Golden West-Orange Coast game.”

It was Holley who capped a 16-13 comeback victory over Golden West last season, producing a one-yard touchdown run with 30 seconds left.

OCC (3-0) defeated Golden West, 30-28, in 2007. Aside from a 41-14 Coast win in 2005, the other six games in the series since 2002 have been decided by an average of just fewer than four points.

It appeared this one had been decided with 2:33 left, when Lucas Vandeman kicked a 22-yard field goal that gave OCC a 17-7 cushion.

But Golden West produced a five-play touchdown drive on its ensuing possession, capped by a 41-yard pass from Mike VanDeripe to Matt James on fourth-and-21 with 1:46 left.

OCC was awarded possession when Golden West touched the ensuing onside kickoff before it went 10 yards and, two plays later, Holley, who churned out 104 of his 152 rushing yards after halftime, bolted 39 yards on a toss play to make it 24-14 with less than a minute to go.

But VanDeripe, who threw for 269 yards, collected his third touchdown toss of the game to cap an eight-play TD march that kept the spectators interested. VanDeripe hit Brandon Grissom for a three-yard scoring pass with 13 seconds left to finalize the scoring.

“It was an exciting win for us, big-time,” said Holley, who came in ranked No. 2 in the state in rushing yards per game and now has 537 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns this season.

Holley, who was stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the one midway through the first quarter, capped a 12-play, 87-yard drive with a 12-yard TD run to open the scoring with 9:23 left in the first half.

Golden West answered with a nine-play, 60-yard touchdown drive and the score remained tied until OCC quarterback Kyle Manning hit Lano Fuentes on a crossing route for a 16-yard touchdown with 9:24 left in the contest.

After misfiring on seven straight pass attempts spanning the end of the first half and the start of the second, Manning, a sophomore in his first season as a starter, completed six of his next seven, capped by the aforementioned dart to Fuentes.

“Kyle settled in and got into his rhythm,” Taylor said of Manning’s late surge.

OCC scored on its final three possessions, after producing points on one of its first 11, including a pair of interceptions.

But whatever slack the offense was creating, the defense continued to tug taut. The Pirates, who had allowed minus-44 combined rushing yards in its opening two victories, allowed just two yards on 29 rushing attempts Saturday.

Freshman defensive end Bryce Brantley was in on three of OCC’s six quarterback sacks.

“It’s amazing,” said OCC sophomore outside linebacker Jimmy Keating, the recognized leader of the defense. “[Taylor] got us fired up. We talked about no other [OCC coach] getting three straight wins over Golden West. We wanted to get Coach Taylor in the record book. I had dreams of football glory last night and all I was thinking about was getting this win for Coach Taylor.”

Manning finished 13 of 28 for 158 yards.

WEST-COAST SHOWDOWN

Orange Coast 24, Golden West 21

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Golden West 0-7-0-14--21

Orange Coast 0-7-0-17--24 

SECOND QUARTER

OCC – Holley 12 run (Vandeman kick), 9:23.

GWC – Blake 13 pass from VanDeripe (Torres kick), 3:34.

FOURTH QUARTER

OCC – Fuentes 16 pass from Manning (Vandeman kick), 9:24.

OCC – Vandeman 22 FG, 2:33.

GWC – James 41 pass from VanDeripe (Torres kick), 1:46.

OCC – Holley 39 run (Vandeman kick), 0:55.

GWC – Grissom 3 pass from VanDeripe (Torres kick), 0:13.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

GWC – Manual, 14-39; Williams, 3-4; Blake, 2-minus 1; VanDeripe, 9-minus 5; Team, 1-minus 25.

OCC – Holley 34-152, 2 TDs; Estrada, 1-13; Ivey, 2-6.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

GWC – VanDeripe, 18-37-0, 269, 3 TDs.

OCC – Manning, 13-28-2, 158, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

GWC – Blake, 5-95; Grissom, 6-49, 1 TD; James, 3-57, 1 TD; Burns, 2-35; Manuel, 2-33.

OCC – Burdett, 4-61; Allen, 3-25; Estrada, 2-19; Reinhanifam, 1-25; Fuentes, 1-16, 1 TD; Simmons, 1-11; Vidal, 1-1.