Road Woes Continue For Football

 The Pasadena City College football team may want to petition the SCFA to play all its games at Robinson Stadium. Away from PCC, it's been a truly tough road for the Lancers. Pasadena finished 0-5 in road games in 2016 as East Los Angeles College celebrated clinching the American Metro League title in a 63-17 rout over the Lancers. 

PCC (4-5, 2-3 in league) will try to go perfect at home next week when it faces Santa Ana in the team's season finale at Robinson Stadium. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

The team's woes on the road extend back to 2014. PCC has lost 13 in a row on the road and last won on Sept. 27, 2014 in a 20-12 triumph at College of the Canyons. 

Against ELAC (7-2, 5-0), PCC trailed 42-0 by halftime against its local rival. The Lancers played better in the second half but the damage was done. PCC had just one first down in the first two quarters and finished with just five while gaining a season-low 112 yards of offense. ELAC amassed 504 yards and seven passing touchdowns, including five by starter Jonathan Santos.

A few brightspots for the Lancers were kicker/punter Enrique Lozano, running back James Shaw and linebacker Matt Terlizzi. Lozano was a busy player as he punted 10 times for a 39.3 yards average, including a long of 54. He added a 20-yard field goal and two extra points. Shaw picked up his third 100-yard rushing game of the season. He broke off a 66-yard run and bolted for a 38-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. He finished with 121 yards in 16 carries.

Terlizzi led the team in tackles with eight and then returned a fumble 64 yards for a touchdown in the game's final minute. Lineman Quentin Asberry added 1.5 sacks.

PCC's passing game was nearly non-existent, totaling just 32 yards (9-for-21). Several times, receivers were guilty of dropped passes, but ELAC's pass rush was relentless as Lancers' quarterbacks were sacked seven times. Christopher Blanton recorded 4.5 sacks for the Huskies.

Grid Notes--PCC football has allowed 60 or more points in a game now nine times in its 92-year history, including 62 twice last year. The dubious mark for most points allowed by a Lancers team was 69 in a loss at Grossmont in 2010...ELAC head coach Bobby Godinez was once an assistant at PCC and earlier this year served as the Pasadena's interim track and field head coach before filling the Huskies' full-time football coaching vacancy in May...If PCC defeats Santa Ana next week, it would mark a .500 season for the Lancers, which would be the first by the program since 2009. Since 1993, PCC has just four better-than-.500 seasons, two of them performed by current head coach Tom Maher, who directed the team's Mission Conference title and South County Bowl championship in 2001 at 10-1 and then a trip to the Potato Bowl in 2002 at 8-3. Maher returned to the sideline this season after last running the Lancers program from 1996-2004. 

[Photo--Linebackers Jasper Chavez (51) and Matt Terlizzi (52) pursue an ELAC rusher during the Lancers loss at East Los Angeles College Saturday night, image by Richard Quinton.]