Same Old Song and Dance

Rancho Cucamonga, CA -- The Citrus College Football team hit the road for a quick trip east on the 210 Freeway Saturday afternoon to take on Chaffey College. It was the same old song and dance for a banged up Owls team who led early, but was outscored 21-7 in the fourth quarter in what ended up being a 38-20 loss to the host Panthers.

The Owls looked good in their opening drive of the game. Citrus took the opening kick-off to their own 26 yard line and then used 12 plays to march 76 yards into the Chaffey end zone. The impressive drive was capped off when freshman quarterback Brian Meyette found sophomore tight end Christian Beltran in the back of the end zone for a 7-0 early lead.

Chaffey would answer back shortly thereafter, but the Owls defense held the Panthers to a field goal that made it 7-3. Chaffey would then briefly take the lead 10-7 in the opening seconds of the second quarter, before Citrus tied the game up at 10-10 after a 29 yard field goal from freshman Luis Vasquez with 6:52 left in the first half. The game would stay knotted up at 10, until the third quarter.

The third quarter got started off with just as much promise for the Owls as the first did. Freshman defensive back Daijohn Isbell picked off Chaffey quarterback Jordan Velarde at the Citrus 30 yard line and took it up the left sideline before being forced out of bounds at the Chaffey nine yard line. With first and goal at the nine, Citrus would make it down to the one, but a false start doomed any touchdown hopes for the Owls who had to settle for a 20 yard field goal from Vasquez that made it 13-10 with 11:06 left in the third.

That was the last score by Citrus until late in the fourth. Chaffey meanwhile put together three scoring drives of 59 yards, 75 yards, and 51 yards that put the Owls in a big 31-13 hole with 7:47 to go. Citrus finally put together another solid drive that saw the Owls move 80 yards in nine plays before Meyette found freshman Zachery Fields on the edge of the end zone to make it 31-20 with 4:40 to go. Three plays later, Chaffey put the game on ice with a screen pass that went for 37 yards to the Owls end zone.

In the loss, Meyette finished 22 of 39 for 223 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Beltran caught four passes for 50 yards and the score, while running back and sophomore Robert Gonzalez had 14 carries for 38 yards and caught six passes for 49 yards.

Defensively, sophomore linebacker Dillon Fink had a team high eight tackles, including a fumble recovery and a pass break-up. Freshman Preston Carr had seven tackles, as did sophomore free safety Dominique Walker added in a pass break-up.

With the loss, Citrus drops to 1-7 on the year. The Owls will take a break from action before resuming Central League play on Saturday November 7th in Long Beach against the undefeated Vikings. Kick-off is set for 7:00 PM.