Giants drop football opener at Antelope Valley
By Nick Giannandrea
COS Athletics
The result wasn't what was hoped for, but that was a secondary concern after College of the Sequoias played football for the first time in more than 15 months.
In their first game since Nov. 23, 2019 -- a stretch of 475 days -- the Giants fell behind at the end of the game's first series and never completely recovered during a 33-13 loss to Antelope Valley College on March 13 in Lancaster.
All California community college athletics that would have started in the fall or winter of 2020 were delayed until this spring because of safety precautions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sequoias is among 13 of the state's 68 football-playing community colleges to opt to play in this months-delayed season.
The Giants' two-game season, their first under new coach Travis Burkett, got off to a rough start when Antelope Valley blocked a punt on the game's fourth play from scrimmage and Dedrick Moore returned it 10 yards for a touchdown.
Sequoias got a big special teams play of its own -- Jacob Torres (Mt. Whitney High) dropped Marauders' punter John Henderson for a 22-yard loss that set up a 37-yard field goal by Carlos Dominic Hernandez (Tulare Western) -- to cut the deficit to 6-3 before the end of the first quarter.
That would be as close as the Giants would get.
Antelope Valley went ahead 12-3 with 2:18 left in the second quarter on the first of Caden Hinton's three touchdown passes to Davon Johnson, a 9-yarder that was preceded by Xavier Clay's 60-yard run.
Sequoias responded to that score with an 11-play, 45-yard drive directed by quarterback Nathan Lamb (Tulare Union) that resulted in a 28-yard Hernandez field goal that made it 12-6 with 17 seconds left in the first half.
The Marauders, however, pulled away with a 21-point third quarter that featured a 51-yard touchdown run by Clay and scoring passes of 48 and 11 yards from Hinton to Jones.
The Giants scored their first touchdown since a 38-28 loss to Butte in the 2019 Gridiron Classic (the school's first bowl appearance in 10 seasons,) when Tate Robards (Broken Arrow, Okla.) connected with Willie Neal Jr. (Fort Myers, Fla.) from 25 yards out with 7:03 remaining in the game.
Robards, who started the game at quarterback for Sequoias, completed 12 of 26 passes for 133 yards. He was intercepted once.
Lamb, who set Tulare Union's career passing record before initially going to Fresno State as a prefered walk-on, completed 7 of 20 passes for 68 yards with one interception.
Jaedyn Pineda (Mt. Whitney) led the Giants rushing attack with 23 carries for 53 yards.
Neal Jr. paced the Giants' receivers with four catches for 53 yards. Jayson Littlejohn (Sierra Pacific-Hanford) had four catches for 47 yards, Bryan Cuevas (Woodlake) caught four passes for 45 yards, Josh Williams (Roosevelt-Fresno) had two catches for 27 yards, Anthony Valencia (Mt. Whitney) had three receptions for 18 yards and Pineda had two catches for 11 yards.
Defensively, Anthony Cervantes (Tulare Western) and Elijah Garza (San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno) each had a team-leading six tackles for Sequoias.
The Giants received four tackles from Anthony Guzman (Woodlake), three from Lejuane Haynes (Hanford), and two apiece from Jose Luis Ramos (Mt. Whitney), Julian Espinoza (Tulare Union), Sam Sholty (Milwaukie, Ore.), Matt Bolanos (Madera South), Isaak Guzman (Porterville), Trent Gibble (Mt. Whitney) and Johan Reyes (Woodlake).
Jayden Sullivan (Redwood) had an interception.
Sequoias has this weekend off.
The Giants will close their two-game season with a rematch against Antelope Valley set for 2 p.m. March 27 at the Mineral King Bowl. Fans will not be permitted, but the game will have live updates at http://cosgiants.com/sports/fball/2020-21/boxscores/20210327_qrzi.xml.
