Moorpark Beaten by Bakersfield, Sloppy Play : College football: Raiders suffer first loss in game featuring 20 penalties, seven lost fumbles and three interceptions.
BAKERSFIELD — It seemed to have all the makings of a classic, but the Moorpark College-Bakersfield football game Saturday night was anything but a work of art.
Bakersfield won, 37-25, in a mistake-marred Western State Conference matchup in front of 12,312 at Memorial Stadium.
The game featured 20 penalties, including one touchdown-nullifying penalty for each team, seven lost fumbles and three interceptions.
For the second consecutive season, Bakersfield dealt Moorpark its first loss of the season.
Trailing, 30-17, Moorpark had a chance to tighten the gap when Del Marine threw an interception in the end zone. Shortly thereafter, Bakersfield’s Nathan Dupree ran 36 yards for a touchdown.
After sending quarterback Bryan Nixon back to pass on nearly every down in the first half, Bakersfield reverted to a ground-oriented attack in the second and sealed the victory when Dupree spun free for his touchdown run late in the final quarter.
Moorpark scored its final touchdown when Marine hit Matt Young with a nine-yard scoring pass with 20 seconds remaining. Moorpark recovered the ensuing onside kick, but the game ended with the Raiders stranded on the Bakersfield 30.
Any illusions of a defensive battle were quickly dispelled when Bakersfield scored on its third play from scrimmage and led, 13-0, less than three minutes into the game.
Bakersfield (5-0, 4-0) led, 20-17, after a first half in which the teams combined for 487 total yards.
Freddie Bradley, the Moorpark tailback who finished with 215 yards in 31 carries, fumbled the opening kickoff and Bakersfield recovered on the Moorpark 32.
On third and one from the 23, Nixon scrambled left and cut back to the middle to coast into the end zone.
On Bakersfield’s next possession, Nixon threw a high spiral to David Dunn in the end zone. Dunn and Moorpark’s Kelly Carmack both came down clutching the ball, and Dunn ended up with a 42-yard touchdown reception.
Moorpark battled back with a 15-play drive that consumed 6 minutes 16 seconds midway through the first quarter.
Bakersfield’s Lance Geary was called for pass interference on Pete Marine to put Moorpark on the 10, and two plays later Bradley swept seven yards to the right flag for the touchdown.
Moorpark scored early in the second after Matt Pearson recovered a Nixon fumble on the Bakersfield 25. Anderson put the ball on the one after an 18-yard ramble then dived for the touchdown. The conversion gave Moorpark a 14-13 lead.
Bakersfield regained the lead on the second play of its ensuing possession. The 6-foot-3 Dunn outleaped 5-11 Moorpark defensive back John Corcoran to catch a Nixon pass and complete a 69-yard touchdown.
Moorpark’s Andrew Petroski closed out the first-half scoring with a 46-yard field goal.
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