The Long Beach City College football team scored a season-high 58 points and also had a season-best 675 yards of total offense in a 58-45 Central West Conference win at Antelope Valley College on Saturday.
The win was the Vikings' third straight and moved LBCC to the .500 mark for the first time this season at 4-4 overall. More importantly, Long Beach remains tied for first place with Citrus College at 3-0 in the CWC standings with just two games left to play.
The Vikings opened the contest with 21 unanswered points in the first quarter thanks to rushing touchdowns by sophomore Jon Vaughn (62 yards) and freshman Jerramie Jackson (26 yards). LBCC collected a season-high 172 yards rushing in the game, with a majority of those coming in the opening quarter.
A big 92-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Ryan Craighead to sophomore wide receiver Travon Payne (pictured) gave Long Beach a 21-0 advantage after the first quarter.
LBCC held a big lead of 35-7 after Craighead connected with sophomore wide receiver Mike Evans for a 57-yard touchdown pass with 10:45 left in the second quarter.
Antelope Valley responded with a touchdown in its next possession before Long Beach restored the lead to 28 points after sophomore wide receiver Willie Bobbitt hit Payne on an end-around pass for a 33-yard TD to move the score to 35-14 with 1:35 left in the second.
LBCC led 45-17 at halftime before freshman Alex Valencia nailed three consecutive field goals (37, 23, 27 yards) and freshman backup quarterback Marcus Montero tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to freshman Clinton Greenaway to give the Vikings their biggest lead of the contest, 58-24, with 8:15 left in the game.
Antelope Valley (2-6, 0-3 CWC) closed out the game with three touchdowns of its own against LBCC non-starters, but it wasn't enough to overcome the large Viking lead.
LBCC passed for 505 yards, with Craighead completing 22 of 39 passes for 405 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Montero was 4 of 5 for 65 yards with a TD and Bobbitt was 1 for 1 for 33 yards and a touchdown.
Payne led all receivers with 10 catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Evans had five receptions for 93 yards with a touchdown and sophomore wide receiver Sean Morris caught two passes for 99 yards, including an 88-yard TD in the second quarter.
Vaughn ran for a season-best 82 yards on eight carries and Jackson ran eight times for 48 yards.
On defense, Long Beach collected a season-high four sacks. Freshman Haden Gregory led LBCC with seven tackles (4 solo). Freshman Dwan Edwards had six solo tackles with a sack and freshman Dennis Buckner totaled six tackles (3 solo) with a sack, a fumble recovery, two pass breakups, and a sack.
Long Beach returns to action next Saturday (Nov 5) when it travels to Chaffey College for a 1 pm conference game.
Photo: Travon Payne had 10 catches for 182 yards with 2 TDs in the win over Antelope Valley. (Photo by John Fajardo)
