UNCHARACTERISTIC PERFORMANCE BY MARAUDER FOOTBALL IN LOSS TO ALLAN HANCOCK

Photo by Bill Sobalvarro

SANTA MARIA - What's going on with AVC?

The Marauder football team was blown out for the second consecutive week and suffered a major setback in its bowl quest with a disappointing 38-17 loss at the hands of host Allan Hancock, Saturday afternoon.

In its last two losses, AVC (5-4, 2-2) has been outscored 76-30 and went from playing for a potential conference championship, to dropping all the way to a tie for third place. Last week, visiting LA Valley College defeated AVC, 38-13.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Marauders will make a bowl game, but one thing is for certain it must win its next game against LA Pierce next Saturday night to keep its chances alive.

The one positive that came out of the game, if there was any, is that quarterback Blake Shepherd passed the 5,000-yard mark. No other player in AVC history has passed for 5,000 yards. In fact, no other player in school history has passed for more then 4,000 yards.

Shepherd finished the game 24-of-51 for 268 yards and two touchdowns. He was alos picked off twice.

The Marauders, for the second week in a row had trouble stopping the run game. The Bulldogs' (4-5, 2-2) Jajuan Lankford rushed for 171 yards on 23 carries and scored a touchdown. Last week it was LA Valley's Trevor Laurent who rushed for 168 yards on only 14 carries.

The Marauders only had 66 yards rushing, and 38 of those came by Shepherd.

Allan Hancock built a 31-10 lead following a 10-yard touchdown run by Lankford.