PC Scores Late To Win Conference Opener
ESCONDIDO (10-15-2016) -- Palomar blew a seven-point halftime lead, fell behind by six points in the second half, then struck like lightening with 17 seconds left in the game to beat visiting Orange Coast 28-27 in the teams' Southern Conference opener Saturday night.
With his team trailing by six points late in the fourth quarter at Escondido High's Wilson Stadium, Matt Romero threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Arnold to tie the game. Sam Tapia, coach Joe Early's extrodinary punter who was pressed into duty just before the game to double as the kicker, converted the PAT to bring the Comets (3-3, 1-0 in conference) home a winner.
Palomar led at the half 21-14 after two Josh Bernard TD runs of 1 yard and 4 yards, Michael Moore's 30-yard interception return for a touchdown and Tapia's first three of four extra points.
But the Comets began systematically shooting themselves in the foot in the second half, which allowed Orange Coast to come back to lead 27-21. As the clock wound down, the Comets struck back on a 72-yard play from their own 6 yard line when Romero completed a short off-balance pass to ex-Oceanside High teammate Bernard, who took the ball all the way to the OCC 22.
A fumble on the ensuing play gave the ball back to the Pirates at their own 20 with 2:00 showing on the scoreboard clock. But, using their final timeout along the way, the Comets forced the Pirates to punt and got the ball back with 55 seconds to play at their own 45.
After a roughing-the-passer penalty negated an interception and two more penalties on an over-aggressive OCC defense sandwiched around a 9-yard Romero-to-LaMont Chaney pass play, Romero led Arnold with a perfectly-thrown pass at the 2-yard line and he continued into the end zone for the touchdown.
"We didn't play a very good second half, but our kids believed in each other and played hard for each other and we showed a lot of guts to come back and find a way to win," Early said.
Bernard, the 2015 CIF San Diego Section Offensive Player of the Year, finished his best game of the season with 104 yards rushing on 22 carries, plus 87 yards on two pass receptions from Romero.
Romero was 15-for-22 passing for 231 yards and the touchdown pass to Arnold. Chaney, Arnold and Johnny Augero had 11 catches between them for 126 yards. And the Comets got some big-play defensive performances as Zach Gallina and Christian Prince combined for 15 tackles, Moore had four key tackles to go allong with his pick six, a forced fumgble and a pass breakup, Roger Mann contributed three tackles for loss for 13 yards out of five unassisted tackles and Wes Fonoti had a ssack among his five solo tackles.
And, once again, one of the Comets' biggest standouts was Tapia, who pinned the Pirates at their 3-yard line with a 40-yard punt and at the 8 with a 44-yarder on his only attempts of the night.
The team's regular kicker caused a double-switch for the Palomar special teams when he phoned Tapia as the Comets were preparing for their regular pre-game walk-through prior to boarding the busses for the short trip from Palomar to Escondido High, informing Tapia he had something wrong with his knee and wouldn't be able to kick.
At that point Tapia had to break the news to the coaches, then went out and kicked off and made all four of his PAT attempts. Since Tapia normally is the holder, Romero stepped in for Tapia there and the Comets' kicking game didn't miss a beat.
Now the Comets will prepare for a trip to Golden West next Saturday afternoon for the Rustlers' first on-campus game in history, moving there from their regular home field at Orange Coast's LeBard Stadium for one day for the college's 50th anniversary.
Golden West handed Saddleback, ranked fourth in the nation by both the J.C. Grid-Wire and JCGridiron.com, its first loss of the season on Saturday night 20-17.