Zach Shultis threw his fourth interception to Harbor with 43 sec. left, sealing the deal for Los Angeles Harbor College 46-14, capping off the offensive struggles Moorpark had dealt with the entire night.
The final seconds ticked off the clock and L.A. Harbor College began to celebrate. MC, after going into the half tied, was utterly defenseless to the onslaught of offensive dominance L.A. Harbor put forth.
A year of high hopes and offensive brilliance by receiver Chris Gant, quarterback Zach Shultis and running back Matthew Gentle—who rushed for an abysmal 34-yards off of 12 carries—was brought to a screeching halt by Harbors’s hard-nose defense.
“They came out with a better game plan,” said Matthew Gentle, running back for MC. “They shut me and Chris [Gant] down early and throughout, and we never got our offense going.”
The first half opened up with an offensive sputter from both ends, the first points coming from a 30-yard pick-six by L.A. Harbor defender Byron Moore Jr. off a risky pass by Shultis.
Shultis threw for 119-yards off of 19 completions and 4 interceptions with no touchdowns, after the game Shultis commented on the L.A. Harbor defense and the impact of this season.
“They took away what we do best, which is the pass,” said Shultis “[this loss] definitely is a disappointment after all the hard work we put in all year, but this shouldn’t put a mark on what we accomplished in the year.”
Special-teams were the only thing MC had going behind them. After a year yielding only three total touchdowns, two of those were the only offense MC could muster in the night.
A 67-yard punt return by defensive-back Dominick Markham for a touchdown with five minutes left in the first was the first sign of life from MC.
L.A. Harbor was quick to respond after Shultis threw the second of his four interceptions at MC’s own 49-yard line to yet again Byron Moore, returning it 15-yards to set up L.A. Harbor at MC’s 34-yard line.
L.A. Harbor made quick work of MC’s struggling defense, driving 3-plays for 34-yards, scoring on a 22-yard rushing touchdown by L.A. Harbor’s quarterback Ryan Dayton.
MC again came up big with special teams as Markham returned the ensuing kickoff for an 87-yard touchdown before the half, tying it up 14-14.
When the two teams came out, determination was prevalent on the field, but only in one teams favor as L.A. Harbor began an offensive onslaught that didn’t seem to have an end.
L.A. Harbor’s third string quarterback Ryan Dayton, playing for the second string quarter back who suffered a game ending injury early in the first, had MC’s number in the second half. He threw for 247-yards off of 15 passes and 4 touchdowns.
Dayton’s touchdown’s came in the second half as MC’s defensive struggles became very prevalent as the team headed into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter ended with L.A. Harbor scoring 20 points and MC scoring zero.
Head coach Jim Bittner summed up the evenings routing of his team.
“We just met a better team, had some turnovers that ended up making the score worse then what it should’ve been,” said Bittner.
MC plays Chaffey College in the Western State Bowl at Chaffey College Nov 20, this is MC’s eighteenth bowl appearance and first since 1999.
