LBCC football’s defense shined in their hard fought 17-14 victory over Citrus College facilitated by a huge interception from Travis Davis with 27 seconds left on the clock to hand the Vikings their final home victory of the season on Nov. 16.
The energy was electric at Veterans Memorial Stadium as Davis intercepted a pass from Citrus’ Quarterback Jake Denerson and rushed for 18 yards to seal the win.
“I’ll never forget this…trusting my coach and trusting my teammates. I really can’t do any of this without my teammates. I am grateful for this,” Davis said.
Eric Zavala gave the Vikings their first points of the game in the first quarter with the completion of a 34-yard field goal giving Long Beach a 3-0 lead.
At the end of the first half the Vikings were behind by four with a score of 7-3 after a Citrus touchdown in the last 46 seconds of the second quarter.
In the third quarter Quarterback Jett Peddy completed a 24-yard pass to Wide Receiver Marques Guzman, getting the Vikings’ score up to 17 while Citrus remained at 7. Both teams were scoreless for the rest of the quarter going into the fourth.
The beginning of the fourth quarter saw the Vikings still ahead while Citrus scored another touchdown at the 14 minute mark to reduce the Vikings’ lead to 3 points with a 17-14 score.
The Vikings tightened their defense for the rest of the half and were able to pull through with a hard-fought victory.
“I’m incredibly proud of the team and their resiliency. We fought back. We got ourselves out of a hole, and we’re super excited,” Head Coach Brett Peabody said.
Peabody also highlighted a couple of players, including Travis Davis, Michael Salinas, and Carson Moore.
Michael Salinas, a freshman from Polytechnic High School and offensive lineman, talked about the mindset he and his teammates had going into the second half.
“The first half they had us, but when we came out of the locker room we trusted us and played our ball and we just did us,” Salinas said.
Salinas was asked if there was any doubt about if they’d be able to pull off their victory.
“Never, no doubt we always have our heads up. We are always a team,” Salinas said.
Defensive end Carson Moore shared his teammates’ sentiment.
“Once we get that energy going they can’t stop us,” Moore said.
After winning against Citrus College, Long Beach City College is going into its final game of the season against Ventura College on Nov. 27 with a record of 6-4.