Ventura Claims Road Victory, Remains Unbeaten

Traveling for the first time this season, the VC football team avoided the classic "trap" game, defeating Orange Coast Pirates 34-14 in Costa Mesa.  Brian Burt (111 yards) and Isaiah Brown (99 yards) combined for 210 rushing yards and quarterback Jake Luton passed for two touchdowns and ran for another as Ventura won the rematch of the 2015 Beach Bowl despite losing the turnover battle for the third straight week.  The bend-but-don't-break VC defense OCC to turn the ball over on downs four times and limited the Pirates of the South to 100 yards passing in the game.

Orange Coast took the opening kickoff and marched down the field to the VC 31-yard line before failing to convert on a fourth-and-10.  The Pirates of the North took advantage, driving 69 yards in eight plays, capped by a 26-yard reception by Cam Taylor from Luton.  Cooper Garcia nailed the extra point to put VC ahead 7-0 barely seven minutes into the game.

After a three-and-out by Orange Coast, Ventura easily march down the field once again, hitting paydirt on Luton's 2-yard touchdown run.

The VC defense was strong on the next possession as well, forcing another quick punt, and the VC offense capitalized, moving 60 yards down the field and scoring on Kendric Mallory's 3-yard touchdown reception.  Garcia's kick made the score 21-0 for VC before the end of the first quarter.

Orange Coast finally found an answer early in the second quarter, taking the ensuing drive down the field, scoring a touchdown on a fourth down play from the Ventura 5-yard line.  The score would remain 21-7 throughout the rest of the half.

Early in the third period, the OCC Pirates made things interesting taking Luton's second interception of the night back 34 yards to the house to pull to within a touchdown.  VC fans remained on edge throughout the third quarter as Orange Coast was stopped twice on downs inside Ventura territory before quarter's end.

Ventura regained form early in the final stanza, as Burt ran for an 18-yard score with 14:41 left in the game.  The score remained until Jonte Broski hauled in a 7-yard pass from Luton for a touchdown to put the game away at the 1:13 mark.

Luton was 16-35 for 179 yards and three touchdowns and two picks.  Meanwhile, the Pirate ground game picked up the load with Burt carrying the ball 12 times for 111 yards and a score and Brown picking up 11 rushes for 99 yards. Eight different Pirate receivers had catches in the game, led by Logan Javernick with three receptions for 42 yards.

Defensively Darrian McIntyre had another solid outing with 13 tackles, eight solo, and Mark Zavala had 12 stops.

The road gets tougher for the Pirates as they come home on Saturday Sept. 24.  VC, ranked No. 4 in the state, will host No. 1 Riverside at the Sportsplex for a 6:00 pm kickoff.  the game can be seen live on the VC Sports Network.