COS overcomes Siskiyous

After being down 20-7 with 8:40 left to go in the third quarter, COS outscored College of the Siskiyous 28-7 in the remining 23 minutes of the game to defeat the visiting Eagles 35-27. "We have a lot of new starters both on the offense and the defense this season. You can see us improving during the middle of each game as our guys gain more experience. We are learning on the fly in some cases. I am really pleased at our effort and our stick-with-it attitude" said first year COS head coach Joe D'Agostino.

At the 8:40 mark in the third quarter (and down 20-7) COS took over possession of the ball at their own 25 yard line and handed the ball off to Andrew Azua (Sanger) who rushed for 19 yards. Azua was able to shed two defenders and was forced out of bounds at the 44 yard line in the middle of the Giants bench. During the play Siskiyous was assessed two penaities and it was the break the Giants needed. Quarterback Ryan Johnson (Hanford) was able to score on a 2 yard rush just a few plays later to make the score 20-14.

COS would go on to score two more passing touchdowns from Johnson. The first was a 38 yard pass to JaJuan Bell and the second a 32 yard pass to Bre Heights with 11:34 to go in the game. "Ryan was really accurate, and our receivers did a great job of securing the ball.  Our running game was able to open up some things down the field late in the game and Ryan was able to see the open man down the field" according to D'Agostino.

Siskiyous was able to tie the game at 27 with a few big plays at eventually got in the end zone at the 10 minute mark in the fourth quarter. But it was the combination of Ryan Johnson and receiver Blake Wells that would give the go-ahead scores for the Giants. Johnson connected with Wells on a 34 yard pass with 8:04 left in the game. COS decided to go for a two point conversion and it was Johnson to Wells that made the final score of 35-27.

Running back Andrew Azua carried the ball 16 times for a total of 145 yards on the day and Freshmen Quarterback Ryan Johnson went 18-33 for 218 yards including throwing three touchdown passes. Johnson also rushed for two touchdowns. COS now travels to Santa Rosa Junior College next Saturday in an non-league match up before returning home on Saturday September 29^th at 11am.