The Corsairs Struck Down by Comets
After a come-from-behind victory at West L.A. in the season opener, the Corsairs hit a brick wall in their first home game against the Palomar Comets 45-14 at the Corsair Field on September 9, 2017 in Santa Monica, California. It was the second time the two schools have played against each other. The game did not start off on the right foot for the Corsairs after Palomar scored on a 29-yard touchdown by Nick Romero to Nate Johnson, plus a field goal from John Vargas to make it 10-0 Palomar. The Comets extended their lead in the second quarter on touchdown catches from Devin Nilson and Bryce Walker to make it 24-0 over the Corsairs. The Corsairs had multiple looks on offense, but were unable to connect. The passing game proved to be much of a struggle throughout the first half.
The game was eventually put out of reach for the Corsairs as Palomar's Marquis Williams added two touchdown catches in the third quarter to make it 38-0. Adding to that was a 9-yard touchdown catch from Blake Adamson to make it 45-0 Palomar just five seconds into the fourth quarter.
After a long scoring drought through three in a half quarters, the Corsairs got on the board on a 3-yard touchdown run from quarterback John Martinos with 9:04 left in the game, followed by a Julien Mayuer extra point to make it 45-7. Then in the final eight seconds of the game, quarterback Nick Hutchins connected with Trevor Nofoa from 34-yards out to make it 45-14 to avoid the shutout.
Asked about the team's state of mind after the devastating loss, Corsairs Head Coach, Bill Laslett, commented, "I mean they're disappointed obviously, you know. It's not the result that we expected, that we worked for this week. Right now it's upper division football. We started too slow, they came out real physical and they had good team speed and all that. So we got a lot of things to fix right now as far as that... We're 1-1 right now, but we'll look to try and turn the tables next week. We're at home again during the day, so we're looking forward to that."
The passing game proved to be ineffective against Palomar as both John Martinos and Nick Hutchins combined for a total of 10 completions of 30 attempts, 160 yards passing and one touchdown. Regarding who will get the nod at quarterback next week, Laslett stated, "I don't know, so we're gonna let them compete at practice like everybody else. We have like competition Wednesdays, and they were real close this week. I think we moved them in and out more than I want to, so I feel that we'll go through this week and make a decision going into this game and go from there."
The Corsairs will look to rebound from this loss as they will host Mt. San Antonio next week at the Corsair Field on September 16, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. here in Santa Monica, California. In regards to expectations ahead of this upcoming match-up, Coach Laslett said, " It just comes down to offensively and defensively and as far as in special teams, it's just the operation side of it. So we just need to function better, as far as the little things. Another physical team is coming in and we have to be ready to play right away, and I think it's a learning experience for you know mostly a freshman team. When you think about it, we got a lot of young guys and they're great athletes, and I expect them to respond and be better as far as that."