Pirates' season ends with loss to Saddleback

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College football team battled hard against visiting Saddleback, but in the end, the Pirates could not contain the big-play offense of the Gauchos and lost, 52-27, in the season finale at Dick Tucker Field on Saturday afternoon.

In a game that saw over 1,000 yards of combined offense, the Gauchos (8-2, 4-1 in Southern League) had four touchdowns on plays of 30 yards or longer and racked up 598 yards of offense.

For the Pirates (2-8, 1-4), they notched 411 yards of offense and came up with three interceptions, but struggled in the middle portion of the game to find their offense, while Saddleback grabbed control of the momentum after falling behind 14-0 early on.

After Coast's defense forced an early Saddleback punt, the Pirates used a seven-play, 55-yard scoring drive to take a 7-0 lead when quarterback Pete Mitchell hooked up with Rexford Demazeliere on a 7-yard TD connection.

Saddleback answered with a 13-play, 83-yard drive of its own, but the drive yielded zero points, thanks to an interception in the end zone by Nicholas Ebanks. 

OCC's offensive success continued on its next drive when Nico Jackson capped off a nine-play, 80-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run, putting the Pirates up 14-0.

But from there, the Gauchos' defense made the proper adjustments and on OCC's next nine drives, the Pirates settled for eight punts and an interception against them.

While the offense struggled, Saddleback went to work and used the quarterback tandem of Max Gilliam and Cam Humphrey (29-of-38, 421 yards combined) to take the lead away from Coast and never look back. Running back Emari Demercado rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries and also caught seven passes for 103 yards and one TD.

The OCC quarterback tandem of Mitchell and Ayden Auer combined for 297 passing yards and two TDs on 25-of-40 passing. Jackson rushed for 73 yards and two TDs on 24 carries, while Christian Pryor led the way with six catches for 100 yards. Demazeliere pulled on a game-best 10 catches for 88 yards and two TDs.

On defense for the Pirates, Brandon Safford led the way with nine tackles (six solo) with a sack and 3.5 tackles for a loss. Ebanks added seven tackles (six solo) and one interception, while Daniel Garcia notched six tackles with two sacks and four tackles for loss.