September 7, 2017

COS Football Game Notes: COS vs. Feather River

GAME NOTES . . .

College of the Sequoias (1-0) vs. Feather River College (0-1)

Saturday, September 9, 2017—Mineral King Bowl

RECORDS: Sequoias won its season opener last week, defeating Contra Costa on the road 16-14. Playing at home, Feather River lost a heartbreaker to DeAnza 29-27, as the Dons scored on a 36-yard touchdown play as time ran out.

LAST YEAR: COS finished 3-7, losing its final six games, while Feather River went 0-10.

SERIES: COS leads 4-1. The first game was in 2008. This is the fourth season in a row the schools have played. Sequoias has won the last two meetings, 53-21 two years ago in Visalia and last year 28-21 in Quincy.

RANKINGS: COS is ranked 25^th in the state and 11^th in Northern California in this week's JC Athletic Bureau official state rankings. Feather River is unranked.

COACHES: COS coach Irv Pankey is now in his 20th season on the Giants' staff and his fifth year as head coach. Pankey has played football at the highest levels, earning second team all-American honors as a senior at Penn State and then playing 13 seasons in the National Football League as an offensive lineman, with the Los Angeles Rams and Indianapolis Colts. He was originally hired at COS in 1998 as a physical education instructor and assistant football coach. Pankey's career record with the Giants is now 15-26. New additions to the Giants' coaching staff are Gabe Flippo (offensive line), Jeremy Gomez (receivers), Josh Garcia (defensive line), Pedro Castellano (linebackers), and Frank Manquero (defensive backs/special teams). Ernie Rodriguez moves from QBs to offensive coordinator. New Feather River coach is Nick Goulet, who came to the Golden Eagles after 10 years as the offensive coordinator at Chabot College. Goulet played at Chabot and went on to play at Mayville State University in North Dakota, where he earned his bachelor's degree in two subjects. His master's came from St. Mary's. Two of Goulet's assistants also came from Chabot.

GOLDEN EAGLES: The top returning player for Feather River is defensive lineman Jan-Phillip Bombek, who earned all-conference honors as a freshman. He is also the kicker and punter. Bombeck had 5 tackles, ½ sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. Other defensive standouts included linebacker Tori Leota (5 stops, 1.5 sacks, 1.5 TFL) and lineman Daniel Garces (8 tackles, 1 sack, 2.5 TFL). In its loss last week, FRC gained 452 yards and allowed 460. Quarterback Ryan Albiani was 19-31, for 313 yards and 3 touchdowns. His top targets were Jaime Taylor (3 catches for 108 yards) and Damario Portillos (4 for 86). The running game was led by Antoine Patton (81 yards) and Oscee Calhoun (50).

GIANTS: Sequoias won its season opener for the third year in a row, and it was encouraging to see the Giants hold on and win a close game on the road. COS was up 16-7 at halftime and let the defense hold off Contra Costa in the second half. Two keys to doing that were the Giants running 73 plays to 56 for Contra Costa, and dominating time of possession (36:38). Sequoias had two different drives of over 5 minutes in the first half. COS gained 224 yards and the defense held Contra Costa to 195, along with forcing 5 turnovers and recording 5 sacks. One of the fumbles led to a COS score. Top efforts last week were by running back Andrew Azua, quarterback Nolan LeForge, receivers Blake Wells and Juwan McCall; and on defense, linemen Noah Wright and Phoenix Cooper, linebackers Ricky Scott, Jordan Dominguez, and Josh Lee, and backs A.J. Greeley and Andrew Ballin-Armstrong. Scott had 6 tackles and two sacks, Wright 5 stops, a sack and 2 TFL, and Dominguez 6 stops and 2 TFL. On offense, Azua had 13 carries for 48 yards and a score and also caught 4 passes, and Wells was the leading receiver with 5 catches for 52 yards.

NOTES : Other Valley Conference teams ranked in the state this week include Laney (9^th), Sacramento (14^th) and Fresno (15^th)…Justin Wright, Cooper and Frank Ngalamulume each had fumble recoveries last week. Ngalamulume's was on the COS 19 yard line with about 6 minutes remaining to stop a Contra Costa drive for what would have been the go-ahead score…Ballin-Armstrong and Preveon Alexander each had interceptions…only 3 VC teams won in the opening week, Laney and Fresno in addition to COS. Most notable was Laney's win over San Francisco…this will be the only home day game Sequoias will play as the rest of them will be at night, beginning with next week's contest against Diablo Valley at 6 p.m…one change in the schedule: the Oct. 14 home game vs. Modesto, originally scheduled for 6 pm, has been moved back to 7:30 accommodate a band review earler in the day at the Bowl.