The San Bernardino Valley College football team got the start it wanted Saturday afternoon.

The finish, however, left much to be desired for the Wolverines.

Golden West College, the state's No. 5 ranked team, scored the game's final 35 points as the Rustlers defeated SBVC 45-21 at Golden West College.

SBVC scored on its first two possessions to take a quick 14-0 lead. On the game's opening drive, the Wolverines went 76 yards in eight plays, with Mekhi M. Lewis - making his first start of the year at quarterback - hooking up with Latavion Staples for a 50-yard touchdown strike. Julian Pan's kick made it 7-0.

After holding Golden West to negative-4 yards on its opening drive, the Wolverines again cashed in thanks to some special teams play. After being stalled at their own 26, Daniel Fortune lined up to punt. Instead, he kept it, running up the right sideline for a 29-yard gain to the Golden West 45. Lewis followed that play up with a 39-yard pass to Kavan Johnson. Two plays later Austin Bacher found room up the middle for a 10-yard score and the Wolverines were up 14-0.

From there, the Ruslters' defense settled down. And their offense took advantage of good field position to cut into the SBVC lead. Jake Cipres kicked a 32-yard field goal, and that was followed by a 16-yard run early in the second quarter by Mike Carillo to make it 14-10.

SBVC was able to answer back in the second, when Lewis hit Jerrell Calhoun with a pass, and Calhoun did the rest. He shook off three tacklers and ran a tight rope down the sideline for a 39-yard score to make it 21-10.

The Wolverines had chances to widen the lead, but could not convert. Mekhi E. Lewis stripped Golden West quarterback Jake Retzlaff midway through the second, and Anthony Cordoba recovered the ball at the Golden West 33. But four plays later Mekhi M. Lewis floated a pass toward the end zone that was intercepted by Codie Sauvao, giving the Rustlers the ball at their own 5. On the next play, Damon Knighten picked off Retzlaff at the Golden West 31. But the Wolverines gave the ball right back on the next play, as Mekhi M. Lewis was picked off in the end zone by Prince Ford. That would be as close as SBVC would get the rest of the way.

Golden West scored twice less than five minutes into the third quarter, and rolled from there. 

SBVC outgained the Rustlers in total offense, 453-418 in the game, but some of that was due to the Wolverines giving up field position on poor punts and penalties. Penalties continued to haunt the Wolverines on the day, as they were flagged 14 times for 183 yards.