The Long Beach City College football team put up a season-high 41 points but it still wasn't enough as the Vikings' winless season continued with a 58-41 loss to visiting Los Angeles Harbor College on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The National Central Conference loss dropped Long Beach to 0-7 overall and 0-3 in conference play.
Harbor, ranked No. 12 in Southern California, put the game out of reach early, opening the contest with 29 straight points. The Vikings finally got on the scoreboard when freshman Quincy Dickens caught a 56-yard touchdown pass from freshman Nick Pope with 14 seconds left in the first quarter. The extra point kick was missed, and LBCC trailed 29-6.
The Seahawks responded when Ryan Hyman caught the fourth of five touchdown passes on the day to put Harbor back up 37-6. Still in the second quarter, Pope tossed touchdown passes to sophomore Taj Davis (25 yards) and freshman Rodney Morgan (14 yards), but the Vikings went in to halftime trailing 51-20.
Long Beach went on to outscore Harbor 21-7 in the second half, but the Seahawks' lead was too much to overcome. Davis caught a 77-yard touchdown off an end-around pass from Morgan and added a 44-yard TD catch from Pope while Pope capped a 12-play, 63-yard drive with a five-yard run to close out the scoring for the Vikings.
Davis (pictured) had his best game of the season, catching eight passes for 188 yards and three touchdowns. Pope also threw for season-highs of 309 yards and four touchdowns after completing 25 of 41 passes with two interceptions.
Sophomore Hayden Gregory led the LBCC defense with seven tackles (4 solo) and had two of the Vikings' five sacks in the game.
Hyman had a big game for Harbor (4-4, 2-2 NCC) catching nine passes for 267 yards and five touchdowns. Quarterback Brandon Edwards threw for 215 yards and three touchdowns on 9 of 14 passing.
Long Beach will face its toughest opponent yet next week (Oct. 27) when it travels to SoCal No. 1 Mt. San Antonio College for a 1 p.m. conference game.
Photo by Chris Ruiz