Pirates open home schedule on Saturday against Santa Barbara

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COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College football team will have more to play for than just a home-opening victory when the Pirates host Santa Barbara on Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m. at LeBard Stadium.

Prior to the start of Saturday's game, the Pirates will pay tribute to former OCC linebacker Chris Castillo, who was killed in a car accident on Feb. 27, while attending and playing football for Tabor College. 

"We have a few guys on this team who played with Chris and with this friends and family at the game, we've got a lot to play for this week," OCC head coach Bubba Gonzalez said. "As a new coach, what he did for me as a player is something I'll never forget and as long as I'm here, I'm going to make sure he's a player that will never be forgotten in this program."

In addition to the heavy hearts of the Pirate football family, the Pirate football players will be looking to improve on a rough opening day loss to Golden West against another top-tiered program in Santa Barbara City College.

"The one positive thing I took from last week's game was that everything that we did wrong ... it's all fixable," Gonzalez said. "Our goal this week was to get more purpose out of our practices and really push the guys hard as we prepare for another tough match-up. The heat has been a bit of an issue, but with our guys, I see no quit and that's encouraging. I had guys taking responsibility for last week, saying 'We need to get better and we WILL get better.'

"Golden West is a good team, but we showed that we can move the ball at times and on defense, we had key stops so the flashes are there. We just need much more consistency to our game on both sides of the ball. Find ways on defense to get off the field on third down and on offense, find ways to keep drives going on third down."

Quarterback Brandon Cannella threw for 183 yards and a touchdown for OCC last week against the Rustlers, but a pair of interceptions and some missed opportunities tarnished the season opener for the Pirate sophomore. "I think we all just need to get back to executing the fundamentals and for Brandon, that includes little things like proper footwork and throwing mechanics," Gonzalez said. "If things break down in front of him, have the ability to check down and find the nearest target or use his athletic ability to make something positive out of the situation."

Coast will look for more success on the ground, where the Pirates mustered up only 11 rushing yards against the stingy GWC defense. "Our main guy (running back J.P. Segura) will have extra motivation on Saturday, not only because of what happened last week, but also because he and Chris Castillo were good friends so I'm hoping he comes out and has a great game for us," Gonzalez said. 

For the Vaqueros, they are also entering Saturday night's game at 0-1 after falling to Allan Hancock on Saturday at home, 21-10. The quarterback tandem of Alex Johnson (15-of-30, three INTs) and Trenton Luera (7-of-10, one TD) combined to threw for 253 yards, while Johnson and Brandon Smith combined for 75 rushing yards. SBCC main targets in the air incude wide receivers Brandon Smith (6 catches, 80 yards) and Chase Walls (5-76).

"Santa Barbara is a big, deep club and I think we can match up well with them," Gonzalez said. "We have all picked things up this week, including us as coaches, trying to prepare our guys better. The season is just getting started and everything we want to accomplish is still in our hands, so this week, we begin our quest to reaching those goals."