By Matt Robinson – COC Cougar News

Cougar Football had a rough Division opener on Saturday night, turning the ball over five times in route to a 20-12 loss to the Pasadena City College Lancers.

The teams were evenly matched to start as neither team could score through the first half, both moving the ball for a few drives before being forced to punt after stout defense from both teams.

The second quarter was where the Cougars struggles on offense first started to show. With the Cougars inside their own 20 yard line, a Daniel Bernard fumble would be picked up by the Lancers, giving them the ball on the Cougar 25 yard line and a short field to work.

Pasadena would not miss their opportunity when Timothy Jones would punch the ball into the Cougar end zone from 6 yards out to give the Lancers the first lead of the ballgame, 7-0.

The Cougars would continue to turn the ball over in the second quarter, both Devon Dunn and Tony Dawson would lose fumbles in the quarter, with the Dawson fumble ultimately resulting in a 42 yard field goal to give Pasadena a 10-0 lead at the half.

The Cougars looked like they might have cleaned up the turnovers in their first two drives of the second half, both of which resulted in touchdown runs by Da’John Gaines from 5 and 6 yards out respectively.

Neither Gaines touchdown would be completely positive results for the Cougars as both PAT attempts went south. The first attempt by Eric Kreitz resulted in a blocked kick that was returned for two points by Robert Morgan of Pasadena, giving the Lancers a 12-6 lead. Kreitz’s next PAT attempt was missed wide right, resulting in a tie score at the end of the third quarter.

Pasadena would not let the blown lead get to them as they would score after another one of the Cougars five turnovers, this time an Earl Johnson fumble. The first true Lancers play from scrimmage on the next drive would result in a touchdown after a beautiful 44 yard TD pass from Dejon Williams to Turner Jackson to give the Lancers an 18-12 lead.

Pasadena was not happy with just 6 points though, as they would line up for two, ultimately converting after Williams and receiver Amad Springer switched places, with Williams tip-toeing into the corner of the end zone to extend the Lancers lead to 20-8.

The game would not end without a little bit of controversy. On the Cougars next drive they would march down the field, and on fourth and 17 from the Lancers 29 yard line, Dawson connected on a pass in the end zone with Anthony Fowler that looked as though it resulted in a touchdown. The official had a different idea though, ruling that Fowler was out of bounds on the play, signaling that he never got a foot down during the catch, resulting in a devastating turnover on downs for the Cougars.

COC would get one more chance to even the game, after converting two 4th and long situations, they would get the ball inside the Lancers 40 one last time. This time a Dawson pass intended for Tony Claxton was intercepted by Marlon Dobbins, effectively icing the game handing the cougars a 20-12 loss.

The game was broadcast live and free on cougarnews.com by the Cougar News staff, their first regular season football broadcast in 2014.

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