There's no place like home: Corsairs dominate at homecoming game
The Santa Monica College Corsairs football team defeated LA Southwest in the SMC homecoming game, 59-6. The Corsairs remained undefeated on the season by registered their eighth consecutive victory.
Just 2:12 seconds into the game, SMC wide receiver Damaja Young, scored on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Utah commit, star quarterback Troy Williams.
The remaining of the first quarter was rather uneventful, the Corsairs fumbled away the ball several times while LA Southwest had to punt away the ball every drive.
It wasn't until half way through the second quarter when the Corsairs strung together a 85 yard drive capped off with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Cameron Chambers to extend the lead to 14-0.
The Corsairs found the end zone on the next two consecutive series to finish the first half with three straight touchdowns and a 28-0 lead. The final touchdown of the half gave Troy Williams his 20th passing touchdown on the season, an unbelievable feat for only playing in his 7th game of the season.
The homecoming game was starting off just as the fans would hope. Alumnus, students, faculty and the Santa Monica High School band all came out to support the Corsair football team.
The entirely free homecoming game had a halftime event filled with a performance from the local high school band, a raffle giveaway and a field goal contest.
The Corsairs showed no signs of letting up as the second half began. The Corsairs defense kept the Cougars scoreless through the entirety of the third and looked to be flirting with a shoutout.
With 6:20 left in the third quarter, Preston Madden, running back from Washington state, had a successful 46-yard touchdown, a solid redemption after losing a fumble earlier in the game. The Madden touchdown extended the Corsairs lead to 42-0.
The Corsairs' kicker, Kieran Rock converted his longest field goal of the season late in the third quarter to push the Corsairs to a 45-0 lead going into the fourth.
“We all work so hard in practice every day, it’s a great feeling to get my longest field goal in my college career this far,” said Kieran Rock.
With less than four minutes left in the game, LA Southwest was able to score their lone touchdown of the game; however, they weren't even able to convert the extra point kick. The kick was blocked making the score only 52-6, a 46-point lead.
“We work hard in practice each week to remain undefeated, we take each game at a time and try to not get ahead of ourselves,” said Coach Gifford Lindheim.
However, the Corsairs were quickly able to answer with an astonishing, 44-yard touchdown by running back Michael Richeson from Yuma, Arizona, to close out the game on a high note. A group of nearly thirty Corsairs players ran down the sidelines trailing Richeson, so when he reached the end zone they could swarm him in celebrations.
Michael Richeson's touchdown came on only his second time rushing the ball all season and was his first touchdown of the season.
“He (Richeson) just works so hard in practice,” said Max Lyons “It was so amazing to see him score a touchdown, especially one that amazing.”
As the clock winded down, the Corsairs knew their win streak wasn’t going to come to an end.
The Corsairs will travel to Santa Barbara this upcoming Saturday, November 7th, in search of their ninth straight victory and nearly capping off an undefeated season.
The Santa Barbara Vaqueros will come into the game with a 4-4 record.
“These next two weeks are the most important, we’ve come so far and have practiced so hard,” said Rock. “We liked to be tested by teams to show them what we can do, we’re ready to continue our streak and become 9-0.”