Vaqueros impressive in first game

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Finishing the season stronger than last year is a top priority for the Glendale Community College football team, but starting it off the way the Vaqueros did on Saturday night at Sartoris Field with a 51-29 thrashing of West Los Angeles College doesn’t hurt a bit.

In fact, it felt pretty good for the Vaqueros, who displayed a well-rounded offense, showed renewed defensive prowess and picked up their first win in six tries since Oct. 5, 2008 against a team that handed them a season-opening defeat last year.

“We’ve got a way better team than last year, defensively and offensively,” said Vaqueros wide receiver Brian Williams, who caught four passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns. “It comes from hard work in the offseason. ...Run and pass, we had 51 points. That’s a lot of points, we did very good.”

Glendale college would record its share of offensive highlights before the night was over, with quarterback Stephen Miller (16 for 21) throwing for 208 yards and three touchdowns, Jorge Chaidez rushing for 127 yards and a touchdown and Joe Wiggan, who had 91 yards of total offense, rushing for one score and catching another.

But when the offense struggled with two interceptions and two fumbles early in the first half, it was the Vaqueros’ defense — a group that was responsible for three sacks, two interceptions and a fumble recovery of its own on the night — that kept the game under control and gave the offense two short fields with which to take an early lead.

After picking off Miller’s first pass of the game, the Wildcats were pinned at their own 2-yard line leading to a punt that was returned to the West L.A. 14-yard line.

On the second play of that drive, Miller found Williams open in the end zone out of the slot for a nine-yard touchdown at the 12:47 mark.

On third and long of the Wildcats’ next possession, quarterback Alan Ferguson fired a pass over the middle that was intercepted by Max Williams and returned 25 yards to the West L.A. 29-yard line, leading to a seven-play scoring drive capped by Miller’s one-yard keeper with 7:13 left in the first half.

“There was some resiliency with this team I was happy to see,” second-year Glendale college Coach John Rome said. “There was some character in it that they didn’t fall down and didn’t fall apart.”