MARAUDER FOOTBALL SACKED BY CANYONS...,AGAIN

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

VALENCIA - It's been a long time since the Marauder football team has defeated College of the Canyons.

1998 to be exact.

And that wouldn't change on Saturday night.

A sluggish start and a big deficit and the Marauders lost to the Cougars for the 10 consecutive time with a 32-19 loss in the opening game for both teams.

The Marauders (0-1) only trailed 12-7 at halftime, however, the only touchdown came from Jad Cheetany who recovered a fumble by COC (1-0) and returned it 63 yards for the score. That touchdown was the only lead of the game for AVC.

The high powered AVC offense was held in check for the first three quarters of the game until it finally got going in the fourth quarter.

At that point, the Marauders trailed 32-7, until Travon Willis scored on a 3-yard touchdown score trimming the lead to 32-13. Later in the quarter highly touted AVC quarterback Blake Shepherd threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Wayne, but the Cougars still led 32-19.

Shepherd, who finished the game 17-of-37 for 240 yards, did break the 3,000-yard mark for his career and is now tied for second all-time in career passing yards (3,215 yards). Former quarterback Cory Allred holds the all-time AVC record for career passing yards (3,764). 

Shepherd was saced 11 times which is a record for an opponent against the Marauders.