Pirates edge Griffins in season finale, 42-41

EL CAJON -- The Orange Coast College football team ended the 2014 season on a high note, pulling out a dramatic 42-41 road win over Grossmont College on Saturday afternoon.

Kyle White led a dominating ground performance for the Pirates (3-7, 2-4 in Southern Division), rushing for 240 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries. His 240 rushing yards is tied for the seventh-most in school history for one game and it's the most in one game since 2011 (Domenic Betts, 272 vs. Southwestern).

As a team, the Pirates gained 315 yards on the ground -- the most since Coast put up 307 rushing yards against Santa Ana in 2011.

Coast fell behind 14-0 early in the game before scoring 21 straight points to grab the lead. After a big 58-yard run by Clayton Howard, quarterback Kody Whitaker found receiver A.J. Holman for a 6-yard touchdown pass, putting Coast on the scoreboard late in the first quarter.

Ian Pogue slammed into the end zone on a 2-yard run, capping off a 10-play, 74-yard scoring drive for the Pirates, tying the game at 14, before White blasted through the Grossmont defense for a 56-yard touchdown run, putting Coast up, 21-14.

From there, both teams traded blows the entire afternoon. In a game that featured eight lead changes, the Pirates had to fight off a strong performance by Griffin quarterback Michael Carrillo, who threw for 412 yards and one touchdown on 28-of-47 passing, the majority of that success going to WR Christian Brooks, who caught 10 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown.

Coast used a pair of White touchdowns in the third quarter to take a 35-31 lead, but Grossmont regained the advantage heading into the fourth quarter on a Michael Zehkar 3-yard touchdown run, putting the Griffins up 38-35.

It became 41-35 on a 38-yard field goal by Grossmont kicker Brandon Duarte, but the Pirates picked up excellent field position on a 59-yard kickoff return by Darrel Watts, putting OCC on the Griffins' 36-yard line.

Three plays later, Whitaker hooked up with White on a 26-yard touchdown pass, putting Coast up 42-41.

Grossmont marched down the field on its next possession and had the ball on OCC's 9-yard line before ReShon Howard came up big when he intercepted a pass by Carrillo, ending the Griffins' threat.

From there, Coast drained the final 4:56 off of the clock, picking up three key first downs along the way, Whitaker, who was held to just 156 yards on 14-of-26 passing, hooked up with Pogue on a 20-yard completion on 3rd-and-6, then, hit Davasyia Hagger on a pair of passes that resulted in first downs.

Despite a rough season in the standings, there was plenty to cheer about for the Pirate football program in 2014 ...

• Whitaker finished the 2014 season with 2,093 yards (third-most in school history) in just eight games with 16 touchdowns on 175-of-314 passing. He became just the fourth QB in OCC history with 2,000 passing yards in a season and the first to reach that mark since Nick Higgs threw for 2,073 in 2000.
• Wide Receiver Mark Munson, who was injured in the Golden West game in Week 9 and was held to two catches on Saturday, finished the season with a school-record 68 receptions, breaking the previous-best of 63 held by Ray Ohrel in 1999. 
• Munson racked up 989 receiving yards, the second-highest total in school history, topped only by Junior Tagaloa's 1,190 yards in 1987.
• The running back tandem of White and Clayton Howard combined for 1,012 yards on 207 carries -- a 4.8 yards-per-carry average.
• Punter Jake Ambrose finished the year with a 39.7 average -- fourth-best among all SCFA punters.
• Kicker Griff Amies finished his two-year Coast career successfully hitting 52-of-54 point-after-attempts and connected on 39 straight, dating back to last season.
• Coast successfully converted 72 third-down opportunities -- second-most in the SCFA.
• The OCC defense, led by Paul Swanson's 73 tackles, finished with 788 team tackles -- second-most in the SCFA.