The562’s coverage of Vikings athletics is sponsored in part by Long Beach City College.
After shaking off a sluggish start, Long Beach City College had found its offensive rhythm, and was driving in enemy territory with a chance to tie the game in the closing minutes of Saturday’s game against Golden West.
On 1st and 10 at the Rustlers’ 22-yard-line, quarterback Jett Peddy was hit as he threw the ball, or at least that’s how it appeared on the Long Beach sideline. As the ball hit the turf and bounced toward the visitors’ sideline, the whistle never sounded, and the ruling of a fumble allowed the visitors to put the game away.
Golden West returned the ball to the LBCC 3-yard-line, and two plays later punched in what proved to be the game-winning TD, as they held off LBCC for a controversial 31-24 victory at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“I was disappointed at some of the things that made an impact on the outcome of the game, and there will be some video being sent in to address those things,” said a judicious LBCC head coach Brett Peabody after the game. “That said, I’m extremely proud of our team’s effort. This team, they’re so easy to coach. They love each other. They have so much fight in them. Down 10-3 (at halftime), nobody wilted, nobody buckled, nobody worried. And we came back and fought and worked to get ourselves a chance to win the game, and unfortunately, it didn’t go our way.”
As a steady rain pelted the playing surface during the first half, both offenses were fairly quiet. The Vikings’ defense collected three turnovers in the first half, with an interception in the end zone by Donovan Turner, followed by an INT from Marques Guzman and a fumble recovery by Travis “Mookie” Davis.
An LBCC fumble in the closing seconds of the half opened the door for the Rustlers to take a 10-3 lead into the break, drilling a field goal as time expired. Golden West had opened the scoring on a TD toss from Will Burns to Colin Payne for the only points of the opening quarter.
As the rain let up, the points began flowing more freely after halftime. The Rustlers opened up their largest lead on the first drive of the third quarter when Burns hit Trey Nelson for a 12-yard score.
The Vikings responded right away, with Jett Peddy connecting on his first TD toss with a great touch pass to Norvell (PJ) Holmes from 27 yards out, bringing LBCC within a score. Long Beach would then pull even early in the fourth quarter, as Peddy went over the top to Semaj Dunn on a go route, as he left his defender in the dust on a 73-yard scoring strike, making it 17-17 with 14:01 left to play.
LBCC’s defense recorded another takeaway on the next drive, as Carvell Rice intercepted Burns just outside of the endzone, recording the third pick of the day for the Vikings’ secondary.
The offense couldn’t capitalize, however, and Golden West was able to take the lead back on another TD toss from Burns to Nelson, this time from 36 yards away to put the Rustlers ahead 24-17 with 5:48 to go.
Long Beach was just outside the red zone with a little over two minutes remaining when the crucial fumble was ruled against Peddy. Video replay appeared to show him throwing the ball forward, even while being contacted by a Rustlers defender, but the officials stuck with the ruling of a fumble after conferencing on the field. The Vikings also had two big plays waved off by penalty earlier in that drive, both of which ended up inside the Golden West 10. That only added to Peabody’s frustration postgame.
“I think everybody in the building saw what happened tonight,” Peabody said. “Between the illegal pick they called, which was nowhere near a pick, between the forward pass that was ruled a fumble, I think everybody in the building saw what happened tonight. So there’s no reason for me to expand.”
The Vikings were able to get back within a score in the final minute, as Tyson Bordeaux (4 catches, 78 yards) won a jump ball at the goal line for a 41-yard TD, cutting the deficit to 31-24 with 20 seconds to go. However, LBCC was unable to recover the onside kick and Golden West was able to kneel out the victory. The teams did not shake hands after the final whistle.
Peddy ended up with a nice stat line for the Vikings, going 29/44 for 413 yards and 3 touchdowns, all of which came in the second half. He connected with 10 different receivers, led by six catches by Troy TW Crozier totaling 59 yards.
Golden West quarterback Will Burns threw for 279 yards and 3 TDs but was also very effective as a runner, racking up 111 yards on 14 attempts. Nelson was his favorite target through the air with five grabs for 135 yards and a pair of scores.
The Vikings will look to put this game behind them and prepare for a massive game next Saturday. They’ll travel to face unbeaten Mt. SAC, the No. 1 team in the state, on Nov. 9 at 6 p.m.
