Leopards lose last chance for win

by Jonathan Corral
Staff Writer

Trying to continue its winning ways, the Leopard football team ran into a wall of Tigers as Occidental used 28 first-half points to close the door early en route to a 35-7 victory on a chilling Saturday night at Occidental College.

With the loss, the Leopards finish their 2003 campaign 1-8 overall and 0-6 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Their lone victory came last week with a 49-44 offensively explosive victory over Chapman at Ortmayer Stadium in the Homecoming game.

Despite the loss to Occidental, the Leopards were led once again by always dependable tailbacks, Ricky Sullivan and Jeff Williams.

Sullivan led the team in rushing with 51 yards rushing on 16 carries and Williams was not to far behind with 20 carries for 50 yards.

Williams also spent most of the game at quarterback where he was seven for 14 for 67 yards. As a team the Leopards totaled 230 yards of offense, 153 of which came on the ground.

“The last few games we have done an excellent job rushing the ball as a team,” head coach Don Morel said. “It is a combo of both our offensive line and the running backs making good plays.”

The Tigers flew out of the gates quickly as they broke a scoreless tie when Mike Bryant intercepted the would-be Leopard pass and took it in for the 5-yard score and the 7-0 lead with 5:36 remaining in the first quarter.

Occidental’s next scoring drive was lightning quick as it took only two plays and concluded with a Justin Elway 5-yard touchdown pass to Zac Sakowski in the back of the end zone, increasing the Tiger lead to 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Elway had a game and team-high 194 yards on 19 of 25 passing, as well as three touchdowns.

Keeping the pressure on, the Tigers went to the air and Elway hooked up once again with Sakowski for the 20-yard touchdown pass and the commanding 21-0 lead in the second quarter.

Not going down without a fight, the Leopards answered with a scoring drive of their own as quarterback Brian Guerrero capped off a six-play, 25-yard drive with his 15-yard quarterback keeper for the Leopards’ only score of the game to close the gap to 21-7 midway through the second quarter.

Not to be outdone, the Tigers responded to put even more distance between them and the Leopards.
This time Occidental’s special teams blocked an Ian Britt 35-yard field goal that was scooped up by Bryant and returned 75 yards for the 28-7 lead at halftime.

The nail was placed in the Leopard coffin at the end of the third quarter when Elway threw his third touchdown pass to Peter Vo for the 16-yard score.

“We have to maintain our football program,” Morel said. “We have over 60 guys coming back and we need to improve ourselves by getting faster, stronger and just by working hard.”

Despite their record, the Leopards are looking forward to the future and all the hard work it is going to take to have a better season.

“We need to get in the weight room,” Mike Myers said. “We have to get bigger, stronger and faster in order to compete better against our opponents.”