Chabot Shows Drive In Defeat

The Chabot College football team showed heart against visiting Diablo Valley in their National-Bay 6 Conference opener Saturday evening, but Diablo Valley pulled away in the second half for a 33-17 victory.

An example of Chabot’s heart was its final touchdown of the game. After an interception by the Gladiators’ Aukai Grace in the DVC end zone, Chabot drove 80 yards to score with just 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter on a 36-yard pass from Kekoa Turangan to Jeremiah Crum.
“It was good to see that spark. That’s a great defense,” said Chabot coach Eric Fanene. “I was really proud of my defense in the beginning of the game. Our whole thing has been the big play, and we eliminated those mostly in the first half, and the second half the big play got us.”
Chabot’s Laron Flippin recovered an onside kick by the Vikings on the opening kickoff, and the Gladiators proceeded to get into field-goal range for Mark Vargas, who kicked a 27-yard field goal to give Chabot an early lead. DVC’s Ray Vallee countered with a 37-yard field goal on his team’s first possession, but later in the quarter, Chabot (1-5 overall) struck for the first touchdown of the game.
The Gladiators drove 66 yards on just six plays, with a 39-yard reception by Damani Burrell from Turangan accounting for much of that yardage. Crum scored his first touchdown of the game on a 12-yard run from the Wildcat formation with 1 minute, 30 seconds left in the first quarter. Vargas’ point-after-touchdown kick was good for a 10-3 Chabot lead.
“It was just a little wrinkle to bring out for the Bay 6,” said Fanene about the touchdown play. “He’s a great athlete. … The offense looked better today, so that’s something we’ll build on.”
It took a 45-yard field goal from Vallee to cut the Gladiators’ lead to 10-6 with 10:32 left in the second quarter, but Diablo Valley also scored its first touchdown in that period to enter halftime with a 13-10 advantage.
DVC reached the end zone on consecutive possessions in the third quarter, as Joey Aguilar found Mekel Ealy for a 25-yard scoring pass to cap a four-play 80-yard drive, and then Nasim Chin ran 25 yards for a 25-10 Diablo Valley lead.
Chabot’s Pate Haunga was active in run defense and in the DVC backfield throughout the game as a linebacker, and Grace also swarmed to the ball as a defensive back. Freddy Moala, a Tennyson graduate, had a couple tackles for losses, and Robert Porter added a sack for Chabot.
Offensively, Turangan completed 18 of his 36 pass attempts for 275 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. Damien Moun caught six of those passes for 114 yards, and Burrell added six receptions of his own for 85 yards. Crum had three receptions for 60 yards. Ismael Sanchez rushed for a team-high 48 yards.
Chabot will host San Joaquin Delta on Oct. 22 at 5 p.m. The Mustangs are 1-5 overall and 0-1 in conference play after a 44-17 loss to City College of San Francisco on Saturday.