By Stephen Peltz
Freshman quarterback Jacob Barlage wins it for Riverside City College with a touchdown pass to wide receiver Giovanni Sanders in the final seconds of the fourth quarter Sept. 28.
“I can’t tell you man it just felt great coming of my hand. And Gio made a heck of a play. I just tried to put it where he could get it.” said Jacob Barlage.
Barlage helped Riverside City College narrowly escapes with a win against Long Beach City College 31-28.
RCC came back after a very rough game as a whole, and a disastrous third quarter down 28-17 at one point to make the game winning touchdown pass with 30 seconds to go.
Starting quarterback Mike Irwin got RCC off to a very hot start in the first quarter of the game, but once the second quarter started it was nothing like the offense or defense had shown all season. Even when backup quarterback Jacob Barlage came in, nothing was working until the last half of the fourth quarter when the defense starting stopping Long Beach keeping them to short drives and punts.
The penalties were a season low this game with RCC only getting five the whole game, but RCC still managed to find ways to ruin there drives and chances to score.
RCC was 8-19 on third downs. With three interceptions between the two RCC quarterbacks, these are the reasons RCC was not able to keep drives alive and move downfield.
to try and score to keep the game close or get the lead until the final few minutes of the game.
“We were just shooting ourself in the foot. I mean you can’t take anything away theres is a great defense.” said quarterback Jacob Barlage, “They were stopping us all night. And they were making plays. But we were shooting ourselves in the foot. We had to limit the mistakes. And then towards the end we limited the mistakes and finally got in the endzone.”
“Just start better and not shoot ourselves in the foot. We can’t get penalties, we can’t get hands to the face you know, get ourselves in first or second and long situations and just keep guys on the field and keep going fast.”
The adversity the Tigers faced in that game was tough with many players showing their emotions on the sidelines but once they went onto that field it was as if they had hit a switch and left it all on the field that night. The Tigers gained valuable experience to take into the rest of the season.
Photos By Angel Peña
