El Camino Lives Up to Preseason Rating

As season openers go, it wasn’t successful in the win-loss column, but the Antelope Valley College coaching staff wasn’t hanging its heads after a 38-17 loss to El Camino on Saturday night.

Entering this season with a young and inexperienced team--only eight sophomores returned--Brent Carder and his staff figured they were overmatched against a Warrior team that went 9-1-1 last season and returned 33 lettermen.

“We knew they would be tough,” offensive coordinator Gene Pagliaro said. “And they proved that tonight. This was a good time for a lot of our kids to get their feet wet.”

Antelope Valley (8-2-1 last season) outplayed El Camino in the first quarter, but was overwhelmed from the second quarter on.

The Marauders led, 10-3, at the end of the first period, but then El Camino--the nation’s second-ranked team by the J.C. Grid-Wire poll--began to dominate.

The Warriors outscored the Marauders, 25-0, in the second period to take a commanding 28-10 lead at halftime.

Antelope Valley fumbled three times in the second quarter and El Camino converted the last two turnovers into 15 points.

The Warriors’ final score with three seconds left in the half broke the Marauders’ backs.

On a second-and-goal play from the Antelope Valley 30-yard line, Frank Dolce hit a wide-open Shannon Thompson, who juked defensive back Ed Addison at the five-yard line to score.

“That was a breakdown in coverage,” Pagliaro said. “Things like that happen with a young team in the first game of the season. . . . The second half might have been different if that hadn’t happened. It really took the wind out of our sails.”

A fumbled exchange between freshman quarterback Cole Speer and tailback Samuel Warren set up the last-second score, giving El Camino the ball at the Antelope Valley 15-yard line.

The Marauders also fumbled on their previous possession when Speer’s option pitch was batted down and recovered on the Antelope Valley 30-yard line by 6-foot-6, 245-pound defensive end Jeffery Cummins.

El Camino wasted little time in capitalizing on the mistake, taking a 19-10 lead on Al Savea’s four-yard touchdown run four plays later. Niu Sale hit Khevin Pratt for the two-point conversion and a 21-10 lead with 2:02 left in the quarter.