Second Half Nightmare

Valley Glen, CA - Through two and a half quarters, the Citrus College Football team more than held it's own against the #1 team in the American Division, Los Angeles Valley College. Trailing 27-28 with just over ten minutes to go in the third quarter, the wheels came off for the Owls who watched as LA Valley reeled off 33 straight points to close out the game in what turned into a second half nightmare in a 27-61 loss.

The Owls would start the scoring of the night when they needed just three plays to score on their second drive of the night. The touchdown would be set up thanks in large part to a 65 yard rush right up the middle of the field by freshman Devin Floyd. Two plays later, Floyd was in the end zone and the Owls had a 7-0 lead.

LA Valley would come back and score on their next two possessions to take a 14-7 lead, but sandwiched in between those two scores was a 24 yard missed field goal that hit the left upright. Floyd would even things up shortly thereafter, taking the ball off the left side of the line and then scooting 71 yards to the end zone.

Despite the potential swing, the Monarchs kept momentum firmly in their corner by scoring on back-to-back possessions once again to just in front 28-14. After the second score by LA Valley with 7:19 left in the first half, the Owls defense finally got a few stops and the Owls were able to put a couple of scoring drives together.

The first drive by Citrus, would see sophomore quarterback Brian Meyette march the Owls 61 yards up the field over the course of six plays, that wrapped up when Meyette connected with Lua for a 39 yard score. Citrus would get one more score before the half, getting a 27 yard field goal from freshman Carlos Benites with 29 seconds left to send the game into halftime trailing 24-28.

The second half got off to a good enough start for the Owls. Citrus would march all the way down to the LA Valley nine yard line before their drive stalled out. Still Citrus got three points out of it, and trailed by just one point with 10:18 left in the 3rd Quarter. The Owls would force a three-and-out on Valley's next possession, and got the ball on their own 40.

Citrus would pick up one first down and move the ball into Monarch territory, but after coming up five yards shy of the next first down the Owls brought the punt team out. Citrus elected to try some trickery and the move backfired as a pass by Benites was picked off by LA Valley. While the play didn't much affect field possession, the momentum firmly moved into LA Valley territory and the Owls never got it back as they watched the Monarchs rattle off 33 unanswered to close out the game.

Floyd continued his march towards 1,000 yards rushing with 191 yards on the night and a pair of TD's, averaging 9.6 yards a carry. Meyette finished 18 of 35 for 242 yards and a score, while sophomore Henry Tarin caught four passes for a team high 94 yards. On defense freshman Ryan Cavaness finished with a team high nine tackles, while freshmen Henry Pigee and Jeremiah Vasquez each had seven.

With the loss, Citrus drops to 4-5 overall and 1-3 in American Division Pacific Conference play. The Owls will close out the 2016 season on Saturday when they host Allan Hancock College (4-5, 2-2) at 4:00 PM.