HUNTINGTON BEACH – Another impressive Golden West College football season came to a close on Monday with the Rustlers falling by a final score of 22-19 in the Beach Bowl held at the GWC Football Field.
The Rustlers found themselves trailing as El Camino took a 14-0 lead. After a scoreless opening quarter, the Warriors put together a pair of long drives that resulted in touchdown runs of 1- and 5 yards by Jakai Torres in the second.
Golden West finally responded on its final drive of the first half as quarterback Luther Richesso led the Rustlers on a 10-play, 65-yard drive. A pair of El Camino roughing the passer penalties extended the drive, including one called on fourth down inside the red zone.
With time winding down, Richesso completed a 1-yard TD pass to Jake Troxell to cut the ECC lead in half and send the Rustlers into halftime down 14-7.
The momentum from that drive carried over into the third quarter. The Rustlers went 70 yards on the opening drive of the second half, as Jae'Sean Pete ran in for a 7-yard TD. GWC missed the extra point kick but trailed by one, 14-13 at the 10:22 mark.
Golden West's defense responded on the Warriors' next drive, forcing El Camino to punt after three plays to get the ball back in the hands of its offense.
With the Rustlers seemingly in control of the contest, quarterback Parker Awad took Golden West 71 yards over 12 plays with Pete busting through for another TD, this time from 3 yards out, to put the Rustlers out in front for the first time at 19-14 with 2:50 to go in the third.
But the lead wouldn't last. El Camino answered by putting together a 16-play, 73-yard drive that resulted in the go-ahead touchdown. Torres found the end zone for the third time, his final score from 3 yards out.
With El Camino now leading 22-19 with 11:01, the Rustlers appeared to be on their way to going back out in front. On GWC's next drive, a 32-yard completion by Braden Siri to Jonathan Smith gave the Rustlers good field position in Warriors' territory. But on third and 15 from the ECC 24-yard line, Siri's pass to the end zone was intercepted on an amazing play by BJ Wagner to end the scoring threat.
Golden West couldn't do much on its final two drives of the contest and El Camino was able to take a final knee to close out the season.
Although 2023 didn't end the way they had hoped, head coach Nick Mitchell and his Golden West squad can look back at a season full of positives.
The Rustlers wrapped up the year with an 8-3 overall record. Golden West suffered just one loss in league play and finished second in the National Central at 6-1. After dropping a Week 2 contest to defending SCFA champion Riverside, the Rustlers went on to win seven straight games. Golden West was ranked as high as No. 7 in the state.
The Rustlers just missed earning a spot in the Southern California Playoffs, a 33-21 loss in the regular-season finale to eventual league champion and No. 1-seed Mt. San Antonio College kept them out.
Mitchell earned his 100th career victory at Golden West thanks to the Rustlers' 21-14 win at Cerritos. And the Rustlers routed rival Orange Coast 58-9 to win their seventh straight Battle of the Bell game.
