Pirate Football Becomes Bowl Eligible With Win at AHC

Traveling to Santa Maria, the Ventura College football team took down Allan Hancock College 45-30. Quarterback Ty Gangi threw for 385 yards and four touchdowns. Chris Beeson had 70 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. Cam Taylor hauled in seven catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Malcolm Williams had nine tackles to led the Pirate defense.

A win guaranteed the Pirates (6-3, 4-1) their place in a post-season bowl game and kept alive their hopes of back-to-back Northern Conference titles, with a shot at the state playoffs. 

The Pirates came out strong in the first half taking a 31-3 halftime advantage, but the Bulldogs would not go quietly scoring 20 points in the third quarter to pressure the Pirates, who responded in the fourth quarter to stiffle the AHC offense and come away with the victory. 

Ventura opened the scoring on their first drive of the game when they marched down the field before Gangi hit Taylor from nine yards out to put the Pirates ahead. After a quick three and out Ventura go the ball back on their own 25-yard line. Following a false start penalty Gangi went to Taylor again to hit on a 80 yard touchdown strike and an early 14-0 advantage. Both teams were unable to put anymore points on the board in the first quarter trading punts and the Pirates turning the ball over once. 

Hancock cut into the Ventura advantage with a field goal early in the second quarter to make it 14-3. VC responded to score the next 17 points, first when Jake Lanski hit from 48 yards out on a field goal to make it 17-3. Gangi then took the Pirates 20 yards following a blocked punt by Colin Austin and finish the drive himself with a run from the 1-yard line for a touchdown. Ventura then converted on an onside kick, but was unable to convert it into points going three and out on the drive. Getting the ball back at the 2:22 mark Ventura went 40 yards in five plays capped by a Gangi touchdown pass to CJ Pride from 18 yards out. The score put the Pirates up 31-3 at the half and they appeared to be well in control of the game.

AHC though was not ready to go away, however, first scoring on a long 56 yard touchdown run. On the next possession, the Bulldogs intercepted a Gangi pass and returned it 80 yards for a score.  Hancock followe that up with a touchdown at the 4:12 mark to close to within 31-23. On the final play of the third quarter, Gangi hit Jake Mann from five yards out to go ahead 38-23.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Bulldogs returned the ball to the VC 46-yard line, and two plays later, they scored again to close back to within a touchdown and a two-point conversion, 38-30.  The teams traded possessions throughout the final period before Beeson scored on a 1-yard run with 1:22 on the clock to seal the victory for the Pirates.

Defensively, Williams was the top Pirate tackler. Iyah Weir-Soley had one sack with Malik Alatasi Haynes picking up the other Pirate sack. Ronald Washington had a fumble recovery for Ventura. The secondary broke up three passes, but were unable to collect any interceptions in the win.

The victory put the Pirates in position to clinch back-to-back conference titles with a win over Bakersfield on Saturday Nov. 14 at 6:00 pm at the VC Sportsplex. With six wins, Ventura is assured of a berth in a post-season bowl, the program's fifth straight, but a win next week coupled with a Cerritos loss would catapault the Pirates into the state playoffs for the third time in four years.