Orange Overcomes Bumbles to Blank Foothill
ORANGE — Orange won a football game it probably should have lost Thursday night. The Panthers made one mistake after another, bumbling all over the field at El Modena High School.
But they survived only because Foothill was even more inept.
The bottom line was a 17-0 victory, Orange’s first in the Century League.
Those are probably the only numbers that Coach Buddy Bland will care to remember. The 152 yards in penalties, the one turnover and quarterback Noah Kimbwala’s one-for-six performance will be mercifully forgotten.
“That was pretty sloppy,” Bland said. “Our big mouths and penalties set us back all night. We worked on eliminating that stuff all week in practice, but we didn’t improve.
“But we needed this win and we’ll take. We’ll take it.”
No one else would want it, except maybe Foothill.
The Knights (2-5, 1-1 in league), who had 92 yards in penalties themselves, didn’t make more mistakes, but theirs were more glaring and more costly.
In the first quarter, Orange’s Jim Perez came in clean and blocked a punt. It was the sixth kick that Perez has blocked this season--four punts, a field goal and an extra point.
The Knights also made two critical turnovers in the third quarter, when they trailed Orange (3-3-1, 1-1) by only 9-0.
With the ball on the Orange 20, quarterback Steve Weilandt lobbed a pass into the end zone in the general direction of Jason Djang. However, it ended up in the hands of Orange’s David Chavez.
On the Knights’ next possession, Rob Higby broke free on a reverse and was within a step of crossing the goal line after a 17-yard run. However, at the last second, Robert Burns stripped Higby of the ball and Fermin Leal recovered in the end zone.
Orange’s offense contributed little, but it was enough. Fullback Aaron Tarvernier scored on a 60-yard run in the first quarter and tailback Jamie Worthem had a 45-yard run, which set up Kimbwala’s score.
