Local college football roundup: Ventura College earns fifth straight win; MC, CLU lose
The stage is now set. The Ventura College football team can now prepare for an end-of-season double feature.
The first-place Pirates, ranked No. 5 in Southern California, set up potential back-to-back SCFA Northern Conference title deciders over the coming fortnight by rolling over visiting Bakersfield College, 38-20, on Saturday night at the VC Sportsplex.
Ventura (6-2) is now 5-0 in conference play with a visit from El Camino (4-1) and a trip to College of the Canyons (4-1) coming the next two Saturdays.
“We’re the only ones who control our destiny,” Ventura coach Steve Mooshagian said. “But you know how crazy it can be. … The last two weeks of the season are going to tell the story.”
Lamonte James rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns, Jaylen Thompson ran for 103 yards on 18 carries and quarterback Chris Irvin ran for two TDs as the Pirates piled up 325 yards on the ground.
“We played to the tempo of the game,” Mooshagian said. “It became an old-school, grind-it-out game. … Our offensive line and our running backs did an outstanding job.”
VC built a 17-0 second-quarter lead on Irvin’s 5-yard pass to Eli Aragon, James’ 5-yard run and Ryan Pimentel’s 33-yard field goal.
After Bakerfield trimmed the lead to 17-14 at the half, Irvin converted a pair of long drives with short TD runs to push the Pirates’ advantage back to 31-17 with 13:53 to play.
James’ 3-yard run put the game away with 4:34 left.
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Safety Zane Carter, the freshman from Buena High, led the defense with 11 tackles.
With its fifth straight win, VC is bowl eligible for the 13th straight season. But a conference title and return to the regional playoffs are at stake over the next two weeks.
“El Camino is going to be a great challenge,” Mooshagian said. “It’s going to be a great finish.”
College of the Canyons 35, Moorpark College 30
Macloud Crowton threw for 236 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for a score as the Raiders pushed second-place College of the Canyons in their home finale at Griffin Stadium.
Trailing 14-0 in the first quarter, Moorpark tied the game 14-14 in the second quarter on Crowton’s 39-yard scoring strike to River Stout and Crowton’s 3-yard run.
Down 28-14 at the half, the Raiders twice pulled to within a single score in the fourth quarter.
A 3-yard run by Gabriel Landless (Royal High) pulled MC within 28-21 with 13:21 to play. A 23-yard TD pass from Crowton to Noah Cronquist (Moorpark High) pulled MC within 35-28 with 1:45 left.
Niko Narez (Pacifica High) had an interception and Payton Casillas (Thousand Oaks High) had a sack to lead the MC defense.
The loss was the fifth straight for the Raiders, who visit Santa Barbara City this Saturday.
Pomona-Pitzer 38, Cal Lutheran 24
Pomona-Pitzer scored the final 31 points to climb out of an early 21-0 hole and hand the host Kingsmen their third straight loss Saturday night at Rolland Stadium.
JP Andrade threw a 4-yard TD pass to Connor Matzke and TD passes of 13 and 4 yards to Anthony Valencia as CLU built a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.
The lead was 24-7 after Daniel Burgos’ 45-yard field goal with 8:49 left in the half.
But quarterback Grady Russo threw for three TDs and ran for another to spark the turnaround for Pomona-Pitzer (5-3).
Andrade finished 28-of-44 passing for 247 yards, three TDs and two interceptions.
CLU (3-5) will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in its season finale this Saturday night.
Joe Curley covers college sports 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 college football: Ventura earns fifth straight win; MC, CLU lose
