The Long Beach City College football team got off to a rough start as the Vikings suffered a 52-21 non-conference loss at Fullerton College on Saturday night. Fullerton opened the contest with 21 unanswered points in the first quarter and was never threatened.

Trailing 21-0 in the second, Long Beach finally got on the board when freshman starting quarterback Nick Pope (Poly HS) capped a 12-play, 75-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Taj Davis (Paramount HS, pictured).

Fullerton (1-0) answered with touchdowns on consecutive drives midway through the second to go ahead 35-7. Long Beach broke up the run when freshman backup quarterback Casey Nielsen (Gahr HS) connected with sophomore Dominique Williams (Poly HS) for a 19-yard touchdown strike to cut into the Hornets' lead at 35-14 with 1:48 to go in the half.

LBCC closed out its scoring in the fourth with 8:27 remaining when Davis caught his second TD pass of the night, this time from Nielsen, from nine yards out to make the score 45-21.

Davis led the Vikings with five catches for 92 yards. Nielsen completed 14 of 28 passes for 206 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. Sophomore Jared Ginter (St. John Bosco HS) led LBCC on the ground with 58 yards on 15 rushes.

On defense, freshman Kevin Medearis led LBCC with seven tackles (4 solo). Sophomore Haden Gregory (Palos Verdes HS) totaled six tackles (5 solo), forced a fumble, and had a quarterback hurry.

Despite being outscored, Long Beach held the ball nearly 13 more minutes than Fullerton (36:24-23:36) and racked up 406 yards of offense. Flags played an ugly role in the game, as the two squads combined for 28 penalties for 271 yards.

Long Beach (1-0) returns to action next Saturday (Sep 8) at 1 pm when it opens its home schedule against Ventura College at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Photo by Chris Ruiz