Cougars slip by Glendale, 19-10

GLENDALE, Calif. –The College of the Canyons defense held a struggling COC offense in the game on Saturday evening at Glendale College and made key plays down the stretch to hold off the Vaqueros, 19-10, in an inter-divisional game for both teams.

The Cougars relied heavily on their rushing game Saturday evening as play caller Andrew Miramontes left the game in the third due to injury and made an already distraught offense get into a bigger hole. Despite not scoring a touchdown in the third quarter, a 46-yard field goal from kicker Paul Weinstein, his longest kick of his COC career, helped keep Canyons in front.

The Cougars scored on their first drive of the night that started when defensive back Tyler Roby intercepted Glendale's ball at the COC 23-yard line. The pick set Canyons up for a short six-play drive that moved the Cougars to the Vaqueros' 11-yard line. COC could not get a first down, but settled for a Weinstein 28-yard field goal at the 9:46 mark of the first quarter.

College of the Canyons held on to the 3-0 lead through the first quarter, but Glendale came back to tie the game at 3-all with its own field goal with 7:38 left in the half.

The Cougars tried to muster their offense during the next two drives, but COC had to punt the ball away and Andrew Miramontes had his pass picked off by Glendale's Jason Barbic. Glendale could not create points from the turnover and gave the ball back to Canyons, starting the COC drive on its own 10-yard line. Canyons combined a 22-yard carry from freshman running back Fred Winborn and a 54-yard touchdown pass from Miramontes to get the team down the field for their first six points of the game. The extra point from Weinstein was no good, but College of the Canyons was on top by a score of 9-3 with 43 seconds left in the first half.  

Canyons increased its lead in the second half when the Vaqueros punted the ball to their own 46-yard line, setting up a short field for COC. Three plays later, Winborn was in the end zone for his eighth rushing score of the year. The extra point from Weinstein was good and COC took a 16-3 lead.

Glendale scored at the 4:04 mark in the third quarter after wide receiver Hayo Carpenter fumbled the ball on COC's 19-yard line and the Vaqueros' Grant Valentine returned it for a touchdown.

Holding on to a 16-10 lead, the offense couldn't get the ball back in the end zone but the defense did its part by holding Glendale scoreless for the rest of the night. The Cougars scored one more time after sophomore Job Lujan intercepted the ball and brought it to the Glendale 20. A 46-yard field goal, the longest make for Weinstein during his COC career, posted the last points for College of the Canyons and final 19-10 score.

The usual pass savvy Cougars garnered 342 yards of offense and 218 from rushing on the night and held Glendale to 219 yards of total offense.  

Anthony Luna led the defense with 11 tackles and one pass break up, while Matt Brown tallied 10 tackles and fumble recovery, two pass break ups and half a sack.

Winborn had 21 carries for 133 yards and one touchdown for his third consecutive 100+ yards performance and Carpenter caught four passes for 91 yards and a touchdown. Miramontes was 8-of-12 for 117 yards and one touchdown before leaving the game in the third quarter.

The Cougars improve to 5-1, 3-0 in conference and Glendale drops to 4-2, 3-0 in the WSC Pacific Division.

The Cougars travel to East L.A. College for another Western State Conference game on Saturday, Oct. 20. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.