Late comeback not enough for Pirates

COSTA MESA -- A fourth-quarter comeback for the Orange Coast College football team came up short as the Pirates fell to visiting Fullerton College, 46-31, on Saturday night inside LeBard Stadium.

Coast (0-4, 0-1 Southern Division) mustered up a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to give the home team some hope down the stretch, but in the end, the Hornets (3-1, 1-0 in Southern Division) proved too much to handle.

Kody Whitaker threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns on 27-of-55 passing for the Pirates. His 27 completions were the second-most in OCC history (28 by Cameron Biedgoly in 2012) and his 342 passing yards are the ninth-most in school history (417 by Biedgoly in 2012). 

Whitaker's favorite target has been the Pirates top receiver, freshman Mark Munson, who had nine receptions for 164 yards and two touchdowns, while Davasyia Hagger brought in eight passes for 87 yards and a pair of TDs.

But it was the Hornets' special teams which did in the Pirates as Prince Shonola and Marnez Ogletree each had 92-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns. 

FC quarterback Joey Verhaegh threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns on 18-of-34 passing.

A 3-yard run by Salesi Eteaki just four minutes into the game gave Fullerton a 7-0 lead but the Pirates came right back to tie the game on a 10-yard TD strike from Whitaker to Hagger.

But, on the ensuing kickoff, Shonola found an opening and went 92 yards to make it 14-7, Hornets.

From there, both teams tightened up the defense. Leading the way for both teams were Jarrot Thomas (10 tackles, seven solo) and Marcus Kirkpatrick (eight tackles, four solo) for the Hornets and Mike Hayden (10 tackles, six solo) and Paul Swanson (nine tackles, six solo, 1.5 TFL) for the Pirates.

In between another Hornet touchdown, Coast used a 28-yard field goal by Griff Amies and a 34-yard option pass from Xavier Gomez to Munson to cut it to 21-17 at the half.

But Fullerton, capped off by another kickoff return TD, scored the next 25 points to make it 46-17 before OCC late comeback attempt.

Coast will have next weekend off for its bye week before returning to LeBard Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 11 against L.A. Pierce College, beginning at 6 p.m.