Pierce and East L.A. Return but Brahmas Show a Deficit

Is it too late to cut football out of the Pierce College budget again?

That might be a better idea than feeding the new and revamped 1988 team to the wolves week after week.

The Brahmas, playing their first game in three seasons since football was discontinued because of financial constraints, lost the “Budget Bowl” Saturday to East Los Angeles, 20-7, at Pierce.

It was also the first game in three seasons for East L. A., which disbanded its program for the same reason.

After surviving a lackluster first half, the Huskies came out and played the kind of football that might take them somewhere this season. Pierce appears to have its work cut out.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but we can get there,” first-year Coach Bob Enger said. “There were some good things and some bad things. We’re going to watch a lot of videotapes and hopefully make some corrections.”

The Brahmas can start by figuring out how to correct their anemic ground game. Pierce rushed for just 81 yards and managed 223 yards total.

Freshman quarterback Ronnie Lopez, the City Section 3-A Division Player of the Year in 1987, completed 12 of 29 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown, but two of his passes were intercepted. He was just 5 of 15 for 31 yards in the second half.

Backup quarterback Chip Edwards opened the third period at quarterback and led the Huskies to 20 unanswered points that blew the game open.

Edwards put East L.A. on the scoreboard by taking the first snap of the second half and racing 56 yards around end for a touchdown. Manuel Ortega’s kick tied the score, 7-7.

On the Huskies’ next series, Edwards directed a 12-play, 77-yard scoring drive, culminated by Keith Adams’ 10-yard touchdown run. The conversion kick was wide, but East L. A. led, 13-7, with 5:52 left in the quarter.

A Lopez pass was intercepted on Pierce’s next series, and on the Huskies’ first play from scrimmage, Edwards connected with Shintaro Harris for a 78-yard touchdown. Harris beat the Brahmas’ Tylin Cook for the ball, then raced the final 40 yards untouched into the end zone.

Jose Mendoza’s kick put East L.A. ahead, 20-7, with 4:18 to go in the third period.

East L.A. finished with 409 yards, 260 on the ground.

Pierce broke a scoreless tie in the second period when Lopez found Chad Zeigler in the flat. The former Canyon High receiver outjumped Brian Sepulveda for the ball, then juked Joe Gonzales to the turf and dashed into the end zone to complete the 25-yard play. George Konstantinopoulos kicked the extra point to give the Brahmas a 7-0 lead with 4:17 left in the half.

The final indignity for Pierce came on the last play of the game when reserve quarterback Ray Daniels threw a sure touchdown pass to Aaron Jackson, who dropped it in the end zone.