Huskies Dominant in Record Setting Performance in Long-Awaited Season Opener

by Cerwin D Haynes

The word "eager" would be a gross understatement to describe the return to regular season football for both the East Los Angeles College Huskies and their opponent, the Compton College Tartars. In fact, the desire to end the two-year wait to get back on the field ran so deep that the teams got into a scuffle right after the opening kickoff.

It was the Huskies, however, whom converted their enthusiasm into a dominant effort from start to finish, beating the Tartars 70-8 to open the 2021 regular season.

ELAC opened the scoring with a five-play, 48-yd drive capped by a one-yard TD run by Jaden Mason. His run was set up on by an 17 pass from sophomore Rudy Garcia to Minnesota native Tyson Schilling on a 3rd and 8 down to the Compton 1. The Huskies would then stifle the Tartars first drive, and a bad snap on the ensuing punt gave the ELAC the ball back on the Compton 45.

The Huskies would shoot themselves in the foot twice on holding and false start penalties, but they overcame their miscues: from 3rd and 10 at the Compton 45, ELAC QB Trashawn McMillan found Khadeem Richards open for a 25-yd catch and rub down to Compton 20. Six plays later, Jaden Mason would again punch in a 1-yd TD run and the Huskies led 14-0.

The Tartars would finally respond: on 3rd and 8 from their own 43, Tartars QB Octavious Battle found WR Arsiah McCorker streaking down the right sideline with a step on a Huskies DB. Battle's pass hit McCorker in stride and he raced 57 yds to the endzone. Compton would mishandle the snap on the extra point and fail on the conversion, cutting the Huskies lead to 14-6. And then Compton shanked the kickoff out of bounds giving ELAC a short field. The Huskies' green took advantage of the short field, driving to the Tartars 9-yd line right as the first quarter ended.

In the 2nd quarter, ELAC would go on a 21-2 run. Garcia's 9-yd pass found Guy McCarthy in the end zone to begin the quarter. Compton would then go three-and-out on their next possession, with a 17-yd punt return by Emajea Porter plus a Tartars' face mask penalty giving the ball again to the Huskies on their 48. After overcoming a couple of sacks, McMillan would find Richards again on a 35-yd touchdown pass.  Compton put together some plays on their next possession to drive the ball to the ELAC 18. But an intentional grounding penalty plus a delay of game moved the Tartars back to the ELAC 42 where they were forced to punt again, pinning the Huskies at their 2-yd line. With Garcia back under center, he tried for a QB keeper but instead was tackled behind the line and inside the end zone by Jeremy Washington for a Compton safety.

Although they would get ball back, the safety would be the last points the Tartars would score. The Huskies once again forced a 3-and-out on defense, and would cap off their next drive with a 37-yd touchdown run by Mason with 18 seconds left in the half, leading 35-8.

ELAC never looked back after that. In fact, a 35-point second half performance earned the team a school record for most points scored in a single game at 70 total.

HUSKY BITS:

•  The 2nd half Huskies' touchdowns included:
  • An impressive 73-rd TD pass from McMillan to Schilling on a 3rd-and-13.
  • A Mason 4-yd TD rush.
  • A long 43-yd TD rush by Pedro Amousou in which he was nearly tackled but regained his balance and stayed in-bounds to romp into the end zone.
  • A 13-yd TD pass from Garcia to Jalen Ross.
  • A Justin Gaytan 9-yd TD rush.
• ELAC outgained Compton in total yardage, 519 to 158
  • This included a 248-38 rushing yards' advantage.
• The Huskies only punted once. The Tartars nine times.
• ELAC had two second-half interceptions along with two sacks.

NEXT UP

The Pack hosts Chaffey College next Saturday at 6pm.

Review the game in pictures with our photo gallery.