Show-down to the wire

COSTA MESA - Just last season, the rivalry football game between Orange Coast College and neighboring Golden West was renamed the West-Coast Showdown. And, for the second straight season, it proved to be a show-down to the wire.

The host Pirates, ranked No. 19 in the state and No. 11 in Southern California, held on for a 24-21 victory Saturday, though their celebration of an unprecedented third straight win over the Rustlers could not begin without a final sigh of relief after time had expired.

Golden West (0-3) scored two touchdowns in the final 1:46, then recovered an onside kickoff with nine seconds left. After a personal foul and a roughing the passer penalty moved the ball to the OCC 36-yard line with one second remaining, a 53-yard field-goal attempt by Eric Torres came up well short.

The final-play drama capped a wild finish, in which the two teams combined for 31 points in the final 9:24.

“It was an entertaining game,” said OCC Coach Mike Taylor, who saw OCC even the all-time series record at 20-20-2. “[Pirates’ tailback] Ray Holley scored too fast on that last touchdown [with 55 seconds remaining]. We needed to take more time off the clock. But that’s a typical Golden West-Orange Coast game.”

It was Holley who capped a 16-13 comeback victory over Golden West last season, producing a one-yard touchdown run with 30 seconds left.

OCC (3-0) defeated Golden West, 30-28, in 2007. Aside from a 41-14 Coast win in 2005, the other six games in the series since 2002 have been decided by an average of just fewer than four points.

It appeared this one had been decided with 2:33 left, when Lucas Vandeman kicked a 22-yard field goal that gave OCC a 17-7 cushion.

But Golden West produced a five-play touchdown drive on its ensuing possession, capped by a 41-yard pass from Mike VanDeripe to Matt James on fourth-and-21 with 1:46 left.

OCC was awarded possession when Golden West touched the ensuing onside kickoff before it went 10 yards and, two plays later, Holley, who churned out 104 of his 152 rushing yards after halftime, bolted 39 yards on a toss play to make it 24-14 with less than a minute to go.

But VanDeripe, who threw for 269 yards, collected his third touchdown toss of the game to cap an eight-play TD march that kept the spectators interested. VanDeripe hit Brandon Grissom for a three-yard scoring pass with 13 seconds left to finalize the scoring.