Long Beach, Calif. – The Golden West College Rustlers (1-4) jumped out to a 20-0 lead in the first half and then held scoreless in the second half against Long Beach City College (4-1) to lose 42-20.
The Rustlers started with the ball and marched right down the field to score on a Adam Vance 16 yard pass to Angel Matute. After a couple of punts back and forth Golden West would score again when Vance completed a 10 yard touchdown pass to Zimari Manning and after a Quinton Conaway extra point the lead would extend to 14-0 halfway through the first quarter.
Golden West defense got into the action in the opening play of the second half as they picked off a pass from Long Beach quarterback Jake Maier on a third down and 15 play at the Golden West 41 yard line. The offense would take advantage of the field position and score on a LaVonte Tolliver 6 yard rushing touchdown, Conaway would miss the extra point giving the Rustlers a 20-0 lead.
This is when the Vikings offense and freshman quarterback Jake Maier woke up and connected with wide receiver Kyrin Cannon for a 16-yard touchdown pass to trim the lead to 20-7. After a defensive stop by Long Beach, Roderick Ashford Jr. gathered a pitch he nearly lost control of and side-stepped a defender to slide his way inside the pylon for a four yard touchdown run to enter halftime down 20-14.
Golden West started the third quarter forcing a three-and-out but, Long Beach responded by forcing a three-and-out on Golden West to give the ball back to the Viking offense. The Vikings would then score as Maier linked up with wide receiver Jacob Welch for a seven yard touchdown pass, taking the lead for the first time in the game at 21-20.
The Rustlers offense showed signs of life again as they were methodically moving the ball down field when Vance would throw an interception at the Long Beach 21 yard line and Darnay Harris would take it all the way back for the score 79 yards to extend the deficit 28-20 early in the third quarter. Vance would then follow the interception with a third down sack and fumble to turn the ball over on our own 19 yard line. The defense held as strong as it could before Maier would connect with Cedric Byrd for a 12 yard TD score to give the Vikings a 35-20 lead. To finally end a second half to forget the Rustler secondary would give up its fourth passing TD of the night when Maier would connect with Byrd for another 12 yard TD pass.
The Rustlers fall to 1-4 heading into the bye week and they will be preparing to take on #1 Saddleback College (5-0) at home on Saturday October 15th at 6pm.
