With less than a minute left before halftime, the Warriors stood on their own 26-yard line looking to pad their 17-7 lead. Freshman quarterback Lyle Moevao tossed a short pass to sophomore wide receiver Marcel Reece, who was hit almost immediately by a trio of defenders. The problem for the defense was that Reece did not go down.
Reece shook off the tacklers, righted himself and outran another five Palomar defenders on his way to a 74-yard touchdown catch as the Warriors’ football team defeated the Comets Saturday night, 31-20.
“Coach just said we got to come out and make a play,” Reece said. “Lyle (Moevao) just got me the ball early and I just kept my feet moving.”
The team built on its undefeated record and following this week’s bye will head to Orange Coast College to take on the Pirates in its first of five divisional games.
“They (Pirates) will be fired up, they know it is their first game in division,” coach John Featherstone said. “It is going to be a good opener for both of us.”
The game on Oct. 15 will test EC’s running game, as the Pirates are holding opponents to 263 yards of offense per game while only giving up and average of just over 68 rushing.
“We are playing the number one defense in the conference,” Featherstone said.
“They are definitely a team that is capable of beating us if we do not come out and play hard.”
With a tough divisional schedule ahead, including three games on the road, the bye week came at almost a perfect time for the Warriors.
“We really have to work on getting rested,” Reece said. “Everyone is a little banged up. We had a really hard schedule.”
The Warriors have a number of key players on both offense and defense who appear to be on track to return in the team’s division opener.
EC also will look to eliminate some of their mental mistakes; the team has committed over 115 yards worth of penalties in each of its last two games.
“We have to work on our execution as a team,” Reece said. “We have to work on not getting so many stupid penalties.”
Despite all their mental lapses over the last two weeks, the Warriors continued to control the tempo of the game on Saturday.
Sophomore kicker Branden Jones put up the first points of the game with a 23-yard field goal in the first quarter.
The Warriors then scored two straight touchdowns as Moevao connected first with freshman running back Phillip Knight and later with freshman wide receiver Harry Deberry to make it 17-0. It was Deberry’s second catch and first touchdown as a Warrior.
“The first half we did well,” Moevao said. “We came out and played good ball on both sides.”
Moevao threw for two more scores, one to Reece and another to freshman wide receiver Brad Franks. Moevao’s four touchdowns and 300 yards passing earned him honors as one of the three Mission Football Conference players of the week.
Despite not getting into the end zone, sophomore running back Brian Flowers carried the ball 33 times en route to his first 100-yard rushing performance of the last three games.
The Warriors’ defense played well, forcing three turnovers and sacking Comets’ quarterback Josh Somerville six times.
“I thought our defense was really solid in the first half,” Featherstone said. “We harassed the quarterback all night.”
Defensive end Moses Manu, who had his third straight game with at least one sack, anchored the Warriors’ pass rush.
“Our defense is coming along pretty good,” Manu said. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen. The more we play, the more experience they get, the better our defense gets.”
The Warriors’ defense did have lapses; Comets’ wide receiver Jermaine McQueen caught two passes of over 50 yards.
“We broke down in coverage a couple times and that cost us a couple of touchdowns, but for the most part I thought we harassed their quarterback pretty well,” Featherstone said. “We’re just happy to be five and zero at the midway point.”
