By Jair Ramirez
Special teams played a huge role in Riverside City College’s victory returning two punts for touchdowns. A special night for special teams and the defense as Riverside City College trounced Golden West College 56-13 on Oct. 26 at Wheelock Stadium to remain undefeated.
“They made some big plays for us,” said RCC head coach Tom Craft. Freshman defensive back Shawn Dorseau scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 86-yard punt return and freshman wide receiver Rolandiss Whitener Jr. returned another punt 87 yards for a touchdown.
The special teams unit also blocked an extra point and gave RCC great field position throughout the game with big kick returns and excellent coverage team defense pinning GWC deep on their side of the field. “I think coverage wise and return wise we did a good job,” said Craft.
RCC started shaky with three turnovers in the first six minutes of the game, but its defense held Golden West College to only six first half points and took a 28-6 lead into halftime. The defense had a strong third quarter shutting out GWC as Dorseau capped off his big night with a pick six.
“Overall they struck well, they swarmed,” said Craft about the defense. Most of RCC’s offense came through the ground with 177 yards rushing. Sophomore running back Jamon McGlory ran for 71 yards on nine attempts and scored two touchdowns, sophomore quarterback Mike Irwin scrambled for 43 yards and ran one in. Irwin completed 11 out of 22 passes for 124 yards and threw one touchdown and two interceptions as he took most of the teams snaps.
Irwin and freshman Jacob Barlage were splitting quarterback duties all season, but Barlage saw limited action against GWC. With this victory RCC is 2-0 in the Orange Empire Conference and 7-0 overall.
“It’s not where we want to be yet, when we figure it out we can be pretty good,” said Craft on RCC’s season.
