Despite two injuries the El Camino College football team achieved a dominating performance over the Antelope Valley College Marauders in a 60-7 home game victory.
During the first minute of the game defensive tackle, Luke Ah-Kiong, injured his ankle, leaving him unable to finish the game.
“The quarterback kept the ball and he was running, I was chasing him down and one of my teammates wrapped him up trying to tackle him but I guess they didn’t take him down so the quarterback swung my teammate into my ankle and my whole leg turned all the way,” Ah-Kiong said. “I heard a pop and went down, I couldn’t even feel my whole left leg.”
An immediate timeout was called to get Ah-Kiong off the field.
Ah-Kiong was taken to the sideline where under a canopy he was assessed by the team doctors who determined he would need a medical screening to see the full extent of the damage. The injured ankle was wrapped and he was given crutches to walk on.
“Usually there’s quite a few injuries but not always that they have to leave their games, that’s a little bit unusual,” team doctor Lindsey Spragg said.
Spragg explained how the team assesses a player’s ability to return to the game following an injury.
“If they’re unable to put weight on something if or don’t have a full range of motion [they can’t return], we just wanna make sure it’s safe for them,” Spragg said.
As the first quarter ended the Warriors were leading 14-0 thanks to a successful 14-yard run from Gemini Batimana and a separate 46-yard catch thrown by Marceese Yetts to Dayton Tafoya. Kicker Cooper Dileva had two good kicks as well.
During the second quarter, El Camino’s defensive tackle, Terrell Bishop III suffered an ankle injury which he was able to put weight on and walk around after having it iced and wrapped.
“I made the tackle a player laid on my ankle and twisted it,” Bishop III said. “My ankle is cool, it feels numb, definitely gonna try and keep playing.”
As the second quarter ended The Warriors still led at 21-7.
“We can be playing a lot better, [we’ve] faced better teams,” he said.
Following further medical assessment Bishop III was unable to return to the game. He was unable to run due to the injured ankle.
Despite the double injuries, the crowd and team were energetic.
An Antelope Valley supporter shouted “we want a touchdown,” which garnered an across the field response of “you ain’t getting one,” from a Warriors supporter.
“I feel we haven’t had game where we’re all having fun, as a unit as one,” Ah-Kiong said. “I know I’m out but I can see my brothers are out there working as one and as you can see by the score we’re definitely putting the work in.”
Each time the Warriors scored a touchdown, secured an interception or a turn over the team would ring a bell placed near the sidelines, a bell is the symbol of the campus.
The game ended with a 60-7 home victory with El Camino scoring last and seven Warriors scoring overall in the game. The Marauders would only score once.
The Warriors ran for 293 yards with a balanced box score from all contributing rushers and not having two players over 40 rushing yards.
“You gotta credit El Camino for playing a really good football game, they’re a good football team and they played like a good football team today,” Antelope Valley coach Perry Jehlicka said. “They executed in all three phases, I thought they were more physical than us in all three phases and that showed on the scoreboard.”
