Pirates sacked by Comets

ESCONDIDO -- The Orange Coast College football team dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the Southern Conference following Saturday night's 38-16 loss to Palomar College.

The Comets (2-2, 1-0) controlled things from the opening whistle jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead. Their ground game did the most damage as the hosts ran for 202 yards, with Justin Harris (25 carries, 130 yards, one touchdown) and Michael Taele (13 carries, 96 yards two touchdowns) leading the way.

Two big punt returns helped shrink the field down for the Comets as they jumped out to a 14-0 lead on their first two possessions.

Coast trimmed into the deficit when a 59-yard pass and catch from Jon Newsom to D.J. McFadden was followed up two plays later with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Newsom to Dalis Bruce, making it 14-7.

Palomar again took to the ground in the second quarter and pushed the lead back up to 14 (21-7) before Griff Amies hit the first of four field goals on the night -- this one from 30-yards out -- to make it 21-10.

Backup quarterback Jack Foster (20-of-30, 193 yards) marched the Pirates down the field and managed to cut the deficit down to 21-13 with another short, successful field goal by Amies as time ran out.

Both team exchanged field goals to make it 24-16 before another big special teams run by the Comets proved too much to overcome.

Following an Amies' field goal, OCC kicked off to Earvin Simmons, who found an opening and dashed untouched 95 yards for a touchdown to make it 31-16.

Coast was on the run from the Comets' defense the entire night as the quarterback tandem of Newsom and Foster were sacked a combined eight times. Dylan Donahue came through with four sacks to lead the Comets' defense. 

Palomar capped off the scoring with a 34-yard touchdown run by Taele with 1:49 left to play.

Newsom was 5-of-13 for 103 yards before being replaced by Foster. Richard Caceres led the Coast receivers with seven catches for 69 yards.

The Pirates will return to action on Saturday against Grossmont, beginning at 1 p.m. at LeBard Stadium.