Wire-to-Wire Victory Sets Up National Northen League Title Showdown

by Cerwin D Haynes

East LA College put together their most dominant win of the season, beating the Bakersfield Renegades 27-10. Freshman QB Frank Alvarez, starting for the injured Terrance Gipson, lead a total team effort alongside a defense that limited the Renegades to 204 yards on offense. ELAC will host Ventura College next week - the winner of that game to be crowned the National Northern League champion and earn an automatic bid into the CCCAA State Playoffs (more on this below in the "UP NEXT" section).

The Huskies opened the game fast by scoring on their first three offensive series while shutting down the visitors. Their first drive was capped off by a Maury Rams 8-yd TD pass from Alvarez, followed by a Ethan Rodriguez 36-yd field goal on their next possession, which was then followed by a Rene Zaldivar 36-yd TD run to finish their third possession. Meanwhile, the defense of the home Green was stiff: a 3-and-out on the first series, a missed 37-yr field goal attempt by Bakersfield K Luis Haro, and then another 3-and-out series. Add it all up and it was a 17-0 ELAC lead into the second quarter.

The Renegades would convert on their second field goal try, a 28-yarder from Haro with 8:42 left to make the score 17-3. Bakersfield had a chance to cut further into the Huskies lead right before halftime, but Haro's 27-yard try was blocked as the clock hit 0:00.

Bakersfield would get no closer than 10 points - Antonio Robinson would punch in a one-yard TD run with 18 seconds left in the third quarter to trim ELAC's lead to 20-10.

But the Pack answered back on the next possision to put the game out of reach: Backed up 10 yards due to a holding penalty, the Huskies were facing a 1st-and-20 at their own 31. After a 12-yd pass from Alvarez to Trejan Bridges to get back the lost penalty yards, ELAC hit it big on 2nd-and-8.  Alvarez found WR Tyson Schilling on a short pass to the left side, and Schilling ran towards the near sideline. With a defender closing in, Bridges executed a beauty of a block to give Schilling just enough room to take off down the near sideline and stay inbounds. The sophomore from Minnesota sprinted into the end zone for a 57-yd backbreaking TD catch and run, and the Huskies would not look back.

Alvarez finished 22-33 for 296 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs. The defense held Bakersfield to 204 total yards - with only 40 yards allowed on the ground.

HUSKY BITS

• Gipson appeared to be a late scratch, but it appeared the coaching staff knew he would not be available as it appeared early on the offensive strategy was recalibrated for Alvarez behind center. He hit on many short to medium passes to the likes of WR Trejan Bridges, WR/TE Rene Zaldivar, WR Jaylen Moore and WR Tyson Schilling among others. He used his feet to buy time in the pocket to look downfield for passing windows, and mixed in an occasional scramble to keep the defense honest.
• He was also aided by the return of a running game that was shut down last week at College of the Canyons. The committee of Alvarez, RB CJ Tannyhill, TE Rene Zaldivar, RB Jahsiah Sheffield, RB Maury Rams (who had to leave the game with an injury) and WR Kalani Washington combined to rush 32 times for 185 yards. Tannyhill rushed 11 times for 59 yards, while Zaldivar had three runs for 49 yards including a spectacular 36-yd TD run in the second quarter.
• Schilling led all receivers with 4 catches for 101 yards and a TD. Zaldivar had 4 catches for 56 yards, and Bridges 8 catches for 55 yards.
• ELAC dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 49:30 to Bakersfield's 25:18.
• Ray Walters III had 8 total tackles along with a late interception.
• Daniel Barrales had 6 total tackles with 1.5 sacks along with 1.5 TFLs
• Jonathan Perkins had 7 tackles and half of a TFL.

UP NEXT:

One of the biggest games in recent history for ELAC football.

Due to ELAC's loss at Canyons last week, the Huskies needed some help to stay alive for a shot at the conference title. And boy, did they get it...

• • Their first break was earlier in the afternoon when Long Beach CC lost at Allan Hancock College. LBCC was 2-1 in the conference standings and is now 2-2; and because East LA beat the Vikings two weeks ago, ELAC would hold the tiebreaker edge should they both finish with identical records.
  • Ventura hosted Canyons tonight and beat the Cougars 23-13. Every NNL team is now 2-2 in conference play, and due to the tie-breaking formulas listed here, Ventura currently has the advantage over everyone else.

Following the math, if the Huskies beat the Pirates next week in the regular season finale at Weingart, ELAC will win the National Northern League title for the first time in program history. By CCCAA rules, the NNL winner is awarded an automatic berth into the CCCAA regional playoffs.