Coast grinds out 19-7 win over Huskies

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College football team finally took advantage of some home cooking and picked up a win inside LeBard Stadium with a hard-fought 17-9 National Conference, Central Division win over visiting East Los Angeles College on Saturday afternoon.

It was OCC's first home win since wrapping up the 2022 campaign with a 21-14 victory over West L.A.

In a game that lacked flow and was bogged down with a combined 27 penalties in the game, the Pirates found enough first-half offense and then relied on their defensive unit to hold the Huskies to just seven points ... the lowest total since a 47-6 win over L.A. Southwest in 2022.

The Pirates (1-4, 1-1 in conference) got things going on their opening possession. After an ELAC punt was muffed and recovered by Rob Cook, Coast took advantage of the short field and capped off a 7-play, 35-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Zach Congalton, putting Coast up, 6-0 (failed PAT).

The Huskies had the ball deep inside Pirate territory midway through the second quarter, but a pass from ELAC quarterback Daunte Bell was picked off by Josiah Meggs and a 28-yard return gave the ball back to OCC near midfield. Four plays later, Congalton hooked up with Isaiah Esquibel for a 31-yard touchdown strike and the Pirates' lead doubled to 12-0.

ELAC ended the half with some momentum when Chris Hicks took a Bell screen pass and scampered 90 yards for a Huskie touchdown just before halftime, cutting the deficit to 12-7.

OCC special teams got into the fun when a 44-yard field-goal attempt was blocked by OCC's Nolan Oslin, keeping the Pirates up by five midway through the third quarter.

The drive that iced the win for the Pirates came courtesy of two costly 15-yard penalties on the Huskies and finally, Paul Mendoza plowed into the end zone from 5-yards out to put Coast up 19-7.

The Huskies had one final opportunity to chip into the deficit and marched the ball down to the OCC 7-yard-line, but the Pirate defense clamped down and forced a fourth-down completion short of the line to gain, giving the ball back to OCC, where they downed the ball to run out the clock.

Coast found its offensive success running the ball against the ELAC defense, earning 180 yards on the ground. Congalton led the way with 80 rushing yards on 11 carries, while Mike Callens had a strong showing and picked up 58 yards on 16 carries.

Esquibel caught a team-best four passes for 60 yards, while on defense, Coast racked up 12 total tackles for loss, including six sacks, with Eric Gage picking up 1.5 sacks and 2.5 TFLs. Jayden Niumata had a team-best seven tackles, while Joseph Near and Tanner Muir each had six. Near and Cook also had two forced fumbles against the Huskie offense.

Coast will enter the bye week on a happy note, but will return to conference action on Thursday, Oct. 17 against Golden West College in the annual "Battle of the Bell" Game at GWC, beginning at 2 p.m.