Local college football: Moorpark College improves to 2-1; VC and CLU fall

The Moorpark College football’s team year-over-year improvement is shining through on Saturdays.

Noah Cronquist had six catches for 116 yards and a 60-yard touchdown and returned a punt 70 yards for a score and the defense only allowed one TD as the Raiders topped Mt. San Jacinto 33-26 Saturday night at Griffin Stadium.

“It shows you how the team is buying in,” Moorpark head coach Mike Stuart said. “They’re getting better. … Especially how we played them last year.”

The Raiders fell at Mt. San Jacinto 60-30 a year ago.

But they didn’t have Cronquist, the former Moorpark High receiver who now has five TDs in two weeks with starting receivers Charlie Simmons and Jayden Shakir out injured.

“He’s an electrifying player,” Stuart said. “I love how this kid plays. … His three-game highlight film has got to look really nice right now.”

Quarterback Macloud Crowton completed 16 of 46 passes for 229 yards, two TDs and two interceptions. Freshman Tyson Moten caught a TD pass.

Curtis Jackson had 10 tackles and an interception and Payton Casillas (Thousand Oaks High), Robert Rogero and Frank Mitchell had sacks for a defense that only allowed 311 yards of total offense. Mt. San Jacinto scored two defensive TDs to stay in the game.

Mooprark took a 14-13 lead on Quentin Pooler’s 1-yard run with 10:27 left in the second quarter. Cronquist’s 60-yard strike from Crowton regained the lead 21-20 with 2:51 left in the first half.

Cronquist’s punt return with 7:26 left in the third quarter held up as the winning points as the Raiders offense was able to move the ball and run the final 3:26 off the clock.

“Kudos to the special teams unit,” Stuart said. “That’s the second week in a row we’ve returned a punt (for a TD).”

Moorpark (2-1) opens SCFA Northern Conference this Saturday at El Camino College (2-1).

Cerritos College 35, Ventura College 31

A back-and-forth fourth quarter that featured five lead changes left the host Pirates dizzy Saturday night at the VC Sportsplex.

“That one hurt,” Ventura head coach Steve Mooshagian said. “We played well enough to win, but made enough mistakes to lose.”

Cerritos quarterback Dylan Eldredge threw for 418 yards and five touchdowns, including the game-winning 56-yard strike to Chase Grosfeld with 4:42 left.

“We have so many new faces, it takes some time,” Mooshagian said.

The Pirates wasted a big performance from former Oxnard High receiver Eli Aragon, who caught nine passes for 184 yards and a TD.

Lamonte James ran for 78 yards and two TDs and Jaylen Thompson rushed for 97 yards and a TD for VC.

“We can run the ball,” Mooshagian said.

Chris Irvin started the game at quarterback and completed 7 of 12 passes for 95 yards with a pair of red-zone interceptions in the first quarter. Daniel Duran completed 12 of 24 passes for 199 yards and a TD.

Trailing 14-3 in the second quarter, VC retook the lead 17-14 on James’ 18-yard run with 1:12 left in the half and his 3-yard run with 4:03 left in the third quarter.

But that was only the first of six lead changes in the final 19 minutes.

Eldredge’s 30-yard strike to Gavin Porch made it 21-17 Cerritos on the first play of the fourth quarter. VC responded with Aragon’s 95-yard catch and run down the left sideline with 12:08 left. Eldredge hit Michael Bruner with a 13-yard TD pass with 7:47 left.

When Thompson broke a 35-yard TD run with 5:33 to play, the Pirates looked in control. But it took less than a minute for Eldredge to find Grosfeld free down the left sideline for a 56-yard strike.

Despite the loss, Mooshagian was pleased with how the Pirates responded after last week’s 65-24 drubbling to Mt. SAC.

“The improvement we made from the Mt. SAC game to this game was leaps and bounds,” Mooshagian said. “I was proud of how hard we fought. We just found four or five things we have to fix. We’re going to be very good in conference. I feel real good about where we are.”

Ventura (1-2) opens SCFA Northern Conference play this Saturday at Hancock College (2-1).

Pacific Lutheran 37, Cal Lutheran 27

CLU allowed 27 straight points in the second quarter and couldn’t recover on the road in Tacoma, Washington.

Quarterback JP Andrade completed 21 of 31 passes for 216 yards and two TDs, but was sacked eight times. Tight end Jadon Cline (Ventura High) caught six passes for 52 yards and a TD. Cade Cadam caught five passes for 69 yards.

The Kingsmen jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first seven minutes on Dante Coxsom’s 2-yard TD run and Daniel Burgos’ 38-yard field goal.

But PLU took scored touchdowns on five of six possessions in the second quarter to build a 27-10 lead.

Andrade hit Cline and Anthony Valencia for TD passes in the fourth quarter, but the damage was done.

CLU (1-1) opens SCIAC play this Saturday afternoon at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Joe Curley covers high school, collegiate and professional football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcscolleges on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Local colleges: Moorpark College improves to 2-1; VC and CLU fall