Long Beach City College took a 54-27 loss against East Los Angeles, ending their three-game winning streak on Saturday.
Coming off a bye week after their massive victory over Cerritos, LBCC came in as confident going into Saturday’s matchup.
An early first quarter interception by LBCC quarterback Will Madonna resulted in ELAC securing the first touchdown of the game as they capitalized with a 28-yard touchdown pass by ELAC quarterback Trillian Harris to wide receiver Bryson Corbin.
Harris was also the quarterback for Bishop Sycamore, the scandalous and nonexistent high school in Ohio that made shockwaves around the sports world in 2021.
After the Harris-Corbin connection, LBCC came right back on the attack, led by running back Konyae Hunter as a two yard touchdown run gave LBCC a 7-6 lead.
Unfortunately for LBCC, it was ELAC’s game the rest of the way as Harris and wide receiver Kennedy Lewis connected for a 46-yard and 62-yard touchdown to make the score 20-7 as the first quarter ended.
These two scores were just the beginning of a nightmare for LBCC as their confidence headed into this game may have been a bit too much, according to LBCC head coach Brett Peabody in his postgame interview.
“We need to practice a lot harder honestly. We didn’t practice hard this week and we probably kind of felt ourselves a little bit after beating Cerritos…You can’t go out of practice, be lazy, and then come out and expect to play full speed against a good football team,” Peabody stated.
As the second quarter came into action LBCC defensive lineman K’len Williams recovered a fumble in ELAC territory to give LBCC tremendous field position.
Even with a promising chance to rack up a touchdown, the fumble recovery was capped off only by a 37-yard field goal by kicker Ethan Smithlin.
LBCC’s defense couldn’t handle Trillian Harris and ELAC’s air attack as three more passing touchdowns gave ELAC a 40-13 lead at the half.
LBCC began the second half with as few quick completions by Madonna to his receivers that led to a seven yard touchdown run by Konyae Hunter, giving him his second touchdown of the night.
ELAC ended all hopes for a comeback as the quarter went on as they snagged another interception off of Madonna and scored two more touchdowns.
Madonna was benched as the third quarter came to a close, and finished his night completing 18 of 41 pass attempts for 192 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
“I gotta have better practice. It starts with me as the quarterback. I gotta play better and play good enough to win, I gotta find the open guys and throw it better,” Madonna stated after the game.
The last points of the game came with Jett Peddy in at quarterback for LBCC as he connected with wide receiver Semaj Dunn on a 16-yard touchdown pass.
The game ended with a 54-27 loss for LBCC.
LBCC will look to bounce back after a crushing defeat as they have an upcoming two-game road trip against Orange Coast College and Golden West College, with their next home game being against Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 4.