Pirates preparing for Glendale on Saturday

COSTA MESA -- It's going to be a postcard type of day on Saturday as the Orange Coast College football team hosts Glendale College in a 1 p.m. American Metro Division matchup.

"Glendale is another very solid team on our schedule and to me, they're much like Citrus in the sense that they don't have any go-to superstar-type players, but their entire squad is fundamentally sound and they don't make many mistakes on their end," OCC head coach Bubba Gonzalez said. "It's another learning experience for our group and I absolutely still believe in our group. We can control our side of the game and control our attitude and effort and if we can minimize our mistakes and play the way we are capable of playing, it would be another hard-fought contest on Saturday."

Coast showed several bright spots in last week's loss to Citrus and on the defensive end, linebacker Jake Hall came out flying and hit anything that moved, finishing the game with 12 tackles (11 solo) two sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss and an interception.

"He was flying around the field and having fun," Gonzalez said. "I think he's been trying to press a bit, being a captain and leader and we told him to just relax and go have fun. Last week, we saw him running around and smiling and having a great time and he really was a leader for our defense. That group really came together against a good Citrus team and really got after it. I'm expecting to see more of that this week."

On the offensive side, it was another head-scratcher for the Pirates, who struggled to get the passing game going and was held to just 83 yards in the air. On the bright side of things, it was another solid performance for the Pirate ground game, led by J.P. Segura, who finished with 100 rushing yards on just 17 carries. It was his third 100-yard rushing game in six contests and the sophomore has a season total of 486 yards and two touchdowns on just 91 carries (5.3 yards-per-carry).

"I think moving forward, we will have to rely more on our ground game because that's really been consistent for us this year," Gonzalez said. "Of course we will continue to try and find that balance of rushing and passing, but right now we need to lean on what's working for us. I know our quarterbacks can do it and we will continue to fix that side of our game. We're getting our chances to score, but a costly penalty here or a dropped pass there has really caused us to struggle on the offensive side of the ball."

For the Vaqueros, they enter Saturday's game 3-3 overall and 1-0 in division play after topping West. L.A. 41-14 on Saturday. Quarterback Nicholas Garcia was solid on Saturday, throwing for 384 yards and three touchdowns on 28-of-36 passing, with Artis Cole racking up 160 receiving yards and two TDs, including a 95-yard TD catch.

Saturday's win was typical of the pass-heavy game plan that the Vaqueros have implemented throughout the season. Garcia has thrown for 1,434 yards and 16 TDs with only 4 interceptions, while connecting on 62.2% of his pass attempts (115-of-185).

The running game is led by the 1-2 punch of Francisco Navarro (26 carries, 177 yards) and Giorgio Spiropoulos (41-170, 4 TDs), with Cole (team-best 7 TDs and 444 receiving yards) anchoring the pass-catching corps for the Vaqueros.