Pirates rally from 17 down to top Lancers, 27-23

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College football team opened the home portion of the 2013 schedule in style, posting a come-from-behind 27-23 win over the Pasadena City College Lancers on Saturday night at LeBard Stadium.

Trailing 17-0 late in the second quarter, the Pirates went to the "bullpen" and backup quarterback Jon Newsom jump-started the offense with 216 yards passing and three touchdowns on 17-of-26 passing.

Newsom got the Pirates on the scoreboard with 1:06 left in the first half when he capped of a six-play, 70-yard scoring drive with a 36-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver D.J. McFadden, cutting the deficit to 17-7 at the half.

Both teams sputtered on offense for most of the third quarter before the Pirates (1-1) regained their touch with a six-play, 54-yard drive that ended with another connection to McFadden -- this time for a 29-yard touchdown, making it 17-14. McFadden finished the night with six catches for 124 yards.

After the Lancers (0-2) lost the ball on a fumble recovery by Shane Baumann, Coast needed seven plays and 33 yards to take a 21-17 lead when Newsom came through with this third touchdown pass -- this time to Angel Holmes on a 2-yard strike on the fourth play of the fourth quarter.

But PCC responded on its next possession as quarterb Darrian Cazarin (26-of-47, 280 yards, two TDs, one interception) hooked up with Lucious Hinton on an 8-yard touchdown to put the Lancers ahead 23-21 after a blocked PAT by Elijah Steen. Cazarin hooked up with 11 different PCC receivers throughout the night, led by five catches by Aries Pihi.

Things looked bad for the hosts when a 4th-and-1 from the OCC 34 was stopped by the Lancers, giving PCC excellent field position. 

But two plays later, Cazarin was rushed to throw by Frank Chambers and the disrupted pass landed into the hands of lineman Lear Schrader, who scampered 42 yards before a fumble was picked up by teammate DeAndre Dickerson, who continued on to the Lancers' 4-yard line.

Two plays later, backup running back Robert Murtha made the most of one of his two carries, plowing into the end zone from 2-yards out to put Coast back in front, 27-23, with 7:48 left to play.

Pasadena had one final high-quality scoring opportunity on its final drive of the night, using a pair of OCC penalties to gain large chunks of ground. PCC had the ball on the OCC 17 with just over one minute left to play, but with no timeouts. Two incomplete pass attempts and a Lancers' false start penalty were followed with a pass completion to Lucious Hinton, setting up one final fouth-down play with under 10 seconds left. 

With the ball on the Coast 18 and the clock running out, Cazarin went back to pass, but was forced to scramble out of the pocket and tried the score on his own. But, the Pirate defense quickly converged to the quarterback and he was forced out of bounds at the OCC 9-yard line to end the game. Jason Kollock and Josh Heidemann led the Coast defense with 11 tackles each, while Chambers and Frank Griffin each accounted for eight.

The Pirates will return to action on Saturday night against Long Beach City College, beginning at 6 p.m. at LeBard Stadium. That game will feature a special ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the 1963 national championship team, followed by a post-game concert by the '60s surf band, the Chantays.