Second-half dominance was the key to victory for the Tigers as 35 unanswered points propelled them to a statement win to open National Southern Conference play.
The Riverside City College Tigers football team welcomed the Palomar Comets at Wheelock Stadium in a highly anticipated conference opener on Sept. 28.
RCC utilized an effective spread-style offense mixing in screens, short passes, option runs, and deep balls early and often with five receivers nearing or over 50 receiving yards and a trio of players finding the endzone on the ground.
“We wanted to be diverse, keep the defense on its toes, and spread the ball around,” Tigers sophomore quarterback Brady Jones said.
Jones had a massive day racking up 381 yards through the air with three touchdowns and also rushing for 99 yards and scoring twice.
Only leading 17-14 at halftime due to self-inflicted wounds that the Tigers committed with three turnovers and multiple penalties. Two of those turnovers came on interceptions thrown by Brady Jones, his third straight game with a pair of interceptions.
“Brady and (the offense) got off to a rough start. We can’t turn the ball over three times because we put our defense in bad situations,” Tigers head coach Tom Craft said. “I just try and worry about the next play, take it one play at a time and chip away,” Jones said.
The Tigers offense came out firing on all cylinders in the second half scoring on three of their first four drives to start the third quarter and holding the Palomar offense to without a first down till the early part of the 4th quarter.
“We thought we dominated the line of scrimmage and our conditioning, preparation, and the way we practiced really took on in the second half,” Craft said.
The Tigers have shown to be a team of halftime adjustments as they have outscored their opponents 84-28 in their past two games in the second half.
“I don’t think there’s anything magic going on (at halftime) we made a few adjustments and that’s what we’re supposed to do,” Tigers head Coach Tom Craft said. “We probed a lot to start the game, we found out what we needed to do and how we needed to do it and they did a really good job of executing that in the second half.”
RCC will be back home at Wheelock Stadium on Oct. 5 as they welcome #21 Mt. San Jacinto for their Homecoming game.
“We got to keep doing what we’re doing, practicing hard, and coming out on Saturdays and putting in the work,” Jones said.
