Bakersfield, CA - The Renegade football team traveled south to face College of the Canyons on Saturday evening and came away with a tough 42-30 loss on the road to the #1 ranked Cougars to end the regular season.
Canyons was the first team on the board in the first quarter after an 11 play, 65 yard drive that found the endzone. BC immediately responded with a productive 9 play, 63 yard drive that resulted in a Nathan De Jager field goal to cut the lead to 7-3. The Renegades James Thomas then came up with a Canyons fumble on the COC 24 yard line and a few plays later Elisha Ortiz turned it into a 12 yard rushing touchdown to take the lead 10-7. Both teams then took turns exchanging the lead. The Cougars took the lead on a touchdown drive of 71 yards, but then a drive later coughed up the ball, which BC's Jalen Simpkins recovered, inside their own 30 for the second time on the evening. Ortiz then found the endzone on a 24 yard scamper two plays later. Before the end of the half BC added to their lead on an impressive 86 yard drive that featured a 27 yard Jacob Irby pass to Ortiz to increase their lead to 24-14 going into the break.
The second half was a much different story as the third quarter was all Canyons, who scored 21 unanswered points to take back complete control of the game. The Cougars added another touchdown early in the fourth to further extend what would be their largest lead in the game at 42-24. BC's only touchdown came with 5:41 left in the fourth quarter when Jeff Middleton connected with Adarian Rowell on a 19 yard strike to cap a 67 yard drive. A missed two point conversion and not being able to recover the ensuing on-side kick secured what would become BC's fourth loss of the season.
BC quarterback Jacob Irby was 5/22 passing on the night for a total of 78 yards while it was Elisha Ortiz who carried the Renegade offense piling up 175 total yards and 3 touchdowns.
With the loss the Renegades drop to 6-4 on the season (3-2 in conference) and will now wait to hear about a postseason bowl game that would be played this coming Saturday (11/17).
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