Eagles Struggle at #4 Riverside

Daniel Mendoza scored one of MSJC's two touchdowns Saturday as they Eagles lost at RCC.  (Jerry Lee Palad-MSJC)
Daniel Mendoza scored one of MSJC's two touchdowns Saturday as they Eagles lost at RCC. (Jerry Lee Palad-MSJC)

The MSJC football team saw their three-game winning streak end on Saturday as they lost on the road to Riverside City College 76-16.

The Eagles fell behind early and could never recover as the fourth ranked Tigers built a lead of 21-0 by the end of the opening quarter.  RCC would push the lead to 34-0 before MSJC finally found the end zone.  Koa Apana caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Logan Gonzalez for the Eagles with 3:12 left in the first half and after a two-point conversion the score at the break was 34-8.

The second half was not much better for MSJC as the Tigers extended their lead all the way to 69-8 before the Eagles scored again.  Daniel Mendoza had MSJC's only other touchdown, and it came late in the third quarter on a 4-yard run.  The Eagles again converted a two-point conversion.

Gonzalez finished the afternoon going 18 of 41 through the air for 197 yards.  He threw one touchdown pass and was intercepted 3 times.  Christian Kretz and Apana both made a team high 5 receptions in the game.

The Eagle defense was led by Nate Frankfather and Aswut Alvarez who both had 7 tackles in the contest.  Chase Shackleford added 6 tackles and Greg Jackson had 5 while also breaking up two passes.  Vincent Perryman added a sack in the loss.

The loss drops the Eagles to 3-2 overall on the season, they are 1-1 in Southern League play.  MSJC will return to action on Saturday October 19th when they travel to Southwestern College.  The game in Chula Vista on the 19th is scheduled for 6 pm.