Pirates prepping for matchup with Hornets

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College football team will look to bounce back from a tough loss to Cerritos last week with a road matchup against Fullerton College on Saturday, beginning at 12 p.m.

After a frustrating 68-0 loss to the Falcons last Friday, head coach Bubba Gonzalez and his Pirates are trying their best to learn from the mistakes made and push forward against the Hornets.

"Last week's loss is not indicative of who we are as a team," Gonzalez said. "We are committed to learning from our experiences and growing as individuals and as a team. Fullerton is a good team and we have to play with good fundamentals and execution to give ourselves a chance."

OCC quarterbacks Sonny Tierney and Keanu Vasquez have combined to throw for 719 yards and five touchdowns through the first four games of the season, with wide receiver Marcus Royster (12 receptions, 98 yards) and Nicholas Cervantes (9 receptions, 104 yards) being the top two Pirate targets. 

Sophomore linebacker Jayden Niumata has been OCC's top tackler with 37, including 21 solo over four games, with A.J. Leonard and Moke Lozano close behind with 21 total tackles each.

For the Hornets (3-1, 1-0), they earned a 55-21 conference win over East L.A. College on Saturday. Fullerton racked up 446 yards of total offense with a good balance of run and pass. Quarterback Chris Lundsberg (68-106, 968 yards, 13 TDs for the season) threw for 186 yards and two touchdowns (one interception) on 11-of-19 passing before backups Jack Schierholz and Corin Rynders combined for 84 passing yards on 5-of-10 passing. 

Schierholz led the FC ground game with 66 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while Dominic Ancich added 57 yards on the ground as well.

Receiver JT Weir caught three passes for 89 yards and a touchdown, while TD grabs were also hauled in by Luke Indorf and Logan Lester.

EJ Robinson led the Hornet tacklers with six and also had an interception in last week's win over the Huskies.

Live streaming of the game can be found by clicking HERE.