Eight Griff turnovers enough for Mesa
- Updated: September 30, 2019
Grossmont with the ball against San Diego Mesa on Saturday. / photo by Dave Dickens
2019 COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL
SAN DIEGO MESA 49, GROSSMONT 14
EastCountySports.com staff report
EL CAJON – The undefeated San Diego Mesa Olympians took advantage of eight Grossmont College turnovers – including six lost fumbles – and rolled out to a 35-0 lead after three quarters en route on to a 49-14 victory over the Griffins on Saturday.
The Olympians rushed for four touchdowns and quarterback Asante Hartzog ran for three more, going 19-for-32 on his passing attempts.
Former West Hills High star Taj Broomfield caught a 30-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, which gave Mesa a 21-0 lead.
Grossmont rolls out of the pocket on Saturday. / photo by Dave Dickens
Mesa’s Antwoine Ware caught six passes for 103 yards and a touchdown, while teammate Dom McManus also caught six passes, good for 65 yards and an 8-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter for a 14-0 lead.
Mesa’s Isaiah Tate had a 1-yard rushing touchdown just 17 seconds into the game after Grossmont fumbled on the game’s first play from scrimmage.
San Diego Mesa improved to 4-0.
Grossmont scored early in the fourth qaurter on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Joaquin Quintana-McKinney to Amari Colbert with 13:19 to go in the game.
Quintana-McKinney also completed a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Mylik Steen from 24 yards out with 8:54 to go in the game, which made the score 42-14.
Steen had another nice afternoon, catching a team-high 16 passes for 88 yards.
Grossmont’s Perry Steele had five catches for 110 yards.
Quintana-McKinney passed for 232 yards on 15-of-30 attempts.
Mesa stands up Grossmont’s Jarius Burnette on Saturday. / photo by Dave Dickens
Mesa only out-gained Grossmont by 417-329, although the Griffins only rushed for 19 yards as a team.
The Griffins took a first-quarter drive down to the Mesa 1 but couldn’t come away with any points.
With three minutes to go in the third quarter, the Griffins drove down inside the 10-yard line but again came up empty-handed on the scoreboard.
The Griffs also got inside the 10 midway through the third and didn’t score.
Grossmont’s Myles Sadler and Derek Southerland recorded interceptions.
“We are a young team that is growing,” Grossmont College sophomore Anthony Sola said. “We try our hardest to be the best defense in the county. The positives we had were mainly on defense with a lot of crucial stops and turnovers and QB pressure. I feel we have a lot to improve on but there is much work needed to be done.
“Our offense also moved the ball decently and shows the potential to be great. We just support our offense and help them to the best ability that we can.”
Ranse Garner rushed for two touchdowns for Mesa.
Grossmont (0-4) will travel to Escondido to face the Palomar Comets (1-3) next Saturday.
“(Palomar) has a good offense and we need to be ready as a defense and must be ready to play physically and mentally,” Sola said. “We will prepare ourselves to be better as a defense and force more turnovers and sacks.
“We will be preparing and practicing hard and more focused on our assignments to stop their offense, and flourish as a defense while our offense will give their all in achieving more red zone touchdowns and finishing on run plays and long-distance drives.”
