Richmond leads SRJC to Clo Classic victory

<p>Poor pass blocking, botched assignments, and at least one big mental error made life hard on the Santa Rosa JC Bear Cubs on Saturday night at Bailey Field. Cameron Richmond bailed them out.</p><p>The SRJC wide receiver burned visiting Modesto JC twice in the third quarter on deep routes, leading the erratic Bear Cubs to a 34-16 victory in the 2009 Clo’s Classic.</p><p>First Richmond, a freshman from Fairfield, fought through apparent pass interference (not called), caught Grayson Galloway’s high pass at the Modesto 25-yard line, lost a shoe but still managed to sprint to the end zone for a touchdown at the 6:55 mark. Later, Richmond came wide open and hauled in a 55-yarder after the Cubs had successfully picked up a blitzing Pirate.</p><p>“Richmond is gonna be a great player,” SRJC coach Keith Simons said after the game. “And he made plays for us, and he gave us a spark when we needed it.”</p><p>But Simons didn’t sound like a contented coach, though his team had improved to 3-0. He saw too many penalties, too many sacks, too many dropped passes. The Bear Cubs trailed 7-6 at halftime, before Galloway started getting time and finding receivers.</p><p>“It starts up front,” Simons said. “They didn’t do anything we hadn’t worked on all week long in practice. We didn’t do a very good job pass blocking with the offensive line. We didn’t do a very good job pass blocking with the running backs. We had blown assignments. And when that happens, we struggle.”</p><p>Particularly galling to Simons, in his 14th season as the Santa Rosa coach, was a bad decision by Galloway with about five minutes left in the game and his team up 28-14. The sophomore quarterback from Redwood High in Larkspur took off around right end on a quarterback bootleg and picked up 13 yards, but ran out of bounds instead of stopping the clock.</p><p>Simons yanked Galloway and sent his backup, Quinton Agosta, in to finish the game. Agosta’s first pass was intercepted near the goal line. But he later made amends, reacting to a high shotgun snap by taking off around the right edge for a 15-yard touchdown run that iced the game with 1:24 left.</p><p>That’s when things really got weird.</p><p>Rancho Cotate grad Eduardo Farias, who missed an extra point earlier, had this one blocked, and Modesto’s Marcus McIlwain scooped it and took off about 90 yards in the other direction to get his team the two points SRJC had coveted.</p><p>That made the score 34-16. And when Modesto (1-2) threatened again in the final minute, Bear Cubs defensive back Greg Carradine sealed the win with an end-zone interception.</p><p>Simons noted that Galloway “did OK” and will start at Fresno City College next week. Galloway finished 25 of 44 for 367 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception.</p><p>If Richmond (six catches, 179 yards) turned the tide for SRJC, he did have help. Wide receiver Cooper Helfet came back from a rib injury to reel in a pair of touchdown passes of his own — a 22-yarder in the second quarter and a 20-yarder in the third. And halfback Thurman McGowan, a freshman from Santa Rosa High, overcame a slow start (he had one carry for minus-2 yards in the first half) to help the Bear Cubs run out the clock in the fourth quarter.</p><p>“If we can get him going consistently, it will be a big plus for us,” Galloway said.</p><p>Just as important will be the continued development of the SRJC offensive line, a group that still occasionally plays like five freshmen, which they are. Saturday, they gave up five sacks, making it difficult for Galloway to develop a rhythm.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Pirates did some nice things on offense, too. They screened and picked all game long, freeing up receivers for short catches that sometimes turned into long gains. Fleet sophomore wide receiver Vince Andrews, just getting back from an injury, caught 10 passes for 90 yards, including a 23-yard touchdown pass from Greg Panelli that cut the margin to 21-14 with 3:36 left in the third quarter.</p><p>Richmond scored his second touchdown moments later, and Modesto never got any closer.</p><p>The teams spent much of the first half shooting themselves in the foot — if the United States Army, an official Clo’s Classic sponsor, will forgive the expression.</p><p>The Bear Cubs converted a fourth-and-8 situation on their first drive on Galloway’s strike to Helfet, but the play was nullified by a penalty for illegal hands to the face. In the second quarter, the elusive Jared Turner took a punt return back for a long touchdown, but a holding call erased it.</p><p>Modesto was not immune from errors, either. Facing fourth-and-1 from the SRJC 6-yard line inside of 2:00 in the first half, the Pirates were flagged for delay of game. They settled for a short 27-yard field goal — and Matt Burkett missed wide right.</p><p>Now comes another stern test for the Bear Cubs — Fresno, which handed SRJC its first loss of 2008, 24-20 at Fresno. </p><p>“We’ve got to play a lot better,” Simons said. “We’ve got to tackle better defensively, and on offense we’re so far from where we want to be.”</p><p>But at 3-0, there is still hope for these young Cubs.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.</p>