Football Team Falls in Opener at RCC

The MSJC football team seemed to be in the game for 45 of the 60 minutes played on Saturday night in Riverside, but a late push by the Tigers gave them a 59-36 win.

The Eagles were down just 10 at 38-28 early in the fourth quarter after a big fourth down stop of the Tigers gave them the ball back.  Unfortunately, a turnover that turned into a scoop and score for the Tigers with 11:39 remaining pushed the lead to 17, and a fumble on the ensuing kick off gave RCC the ball right back.  The Tigers capitalized quickly and another TD with 10:50 to play put the game out of reach as it was quickly 52-28.

MSJC hung in the game early as they scored the first points of the game when Jevin Dorsey caught a 6 yard touchdown pass from Robert Coleman to cap off a 8 play 67 yard drive that gave the Eagles a 7-0 lead.  The Eagles would tie the game at 14 early in the second period with a Jaylen Magee 16 yard TD reception, but after that MSJC was chasing points the rest of the night as they went into the locker room down 24-14.

Coleman had a strong start to his sophomore campaign as he connected on 28 of 39 passes for 280 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Taliq Brown and Dorsey tied for team high honors with 6 catches each, while Magee had a team best 82 yards receiving.  Linebackers Nathan Ortiz and Steven Bradshaw did their best to contain the RCC offense with Ortiz recording a team high 10 tackles and Bradshaw registering 7.  Carsten Mamaril had 6 tackles and an interception for the Eagles.

In the end it was too much offense from the Tigers that made the difference as they put up 673 total yards.  MSJC finished the night with 343.

The Eagles, now 0-1 on the year will be back in action Saturday as they travel to Antelope Valley for a 6 pm game.  MSJC's home opener is set for September 17th when they host Moorpark at 1 pm at Carl Quandt Stadium on the San Jacinto Campus.