FOOTBALL: TOUGH PILL TO SWALLOW

The No. 7 battled hard against No. 4 Golden West College for the Southern Conference Championship, but the title belonged to the undefeated Rustlers who squeezed by with a 12-7 win over the Hornets.

It was a great game with both teams coming into the battle with undefeated conference records. Fullerton now stands at 3-1 in the Southern Conference and 6-3 overall. The Rustlers have their first-ever conference championship with a record of 5-0 and an overall record of 10-0.

It was not a high scoring affair, but the game was defensive chess match that featured many hard hits. 

The first score of the game came at the 5:02 mark of the second quarter. GWC kicker Jake Cipres' 39-yard field goal put the Rustlers up 3-0. 

Fullerton took a 7-3 lead in the third quarter on Chandler Galban's 17-yard TD pass to Braedin Huffman. Ceasar Velazquez knocked in the extra point at 3:29.

The game seemed to be in Fullerton's favor by the start of the fourth quarter. Driving all the way to GWC's 15 yardline, the Hornets stalled out with a penalty and a sack ruining the drive.

Getting the ball back on their own 25, the Rustlers hit big on a Jake Retzlaff pass to Torrance Wiseman, who took the ball down the field to the Hornet 14-yardline. A few plays later, Mike Carillo took the ball in for a TD from 3 yards out. Golden West took a 10-7 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, FC's Kashan Griffin ran the ball back 64 yards to the GWC 33-yardline. The Hornets got all the way down to the 1-yard line and were ultimately denied on a fourth and goal situation. 

The Rustlers took over on their own 1, and Wiseman struck again taking off down the field for 66 yards on a pass from Retzlaff. The drive was thwarted by a Chandler Brown interception, however the Rustler defense had a trick of their own sacking FC's Chandler Galban in the endzone for a safety.

With time running out, Fullerton did not have enough in the tank to pull it off as Golden West locked down its first conference championship in program history.

The FC and GWC all-time series now stands at 32-11 in Fullerton's favor. The first meeting between the Hornets and Rustlers was in 1966, a 37-6 victory by Coach Hal Sherbeck's team.

*Photo by Jim Mcormack

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