SMC Football Loses Homecoming to LA Harbor
The Santa Monica College (SMC) Corsairs faced the Los Angeles Harbor College Seahawks on Oct. 19, 2019 in a homecoming celebration, but the festivities were short lived.
Coming out in their first offensive drive, the Corsairs had garnered some momentum gaining yards and stacking up good runs from running backs Ricky Hambright (#1), and Trevontai Thompson (#32) until they were forced to kick the field goal and settle for three points. It was a good start but not the result they ultimately needed to keep their momentum going. For the next two drives on offense, it was a collapse as quarterback Zach Yanda (#12) threw an interception, and special teams managed to mishandle the snap on a field goal attempt. Turnovers, along with a number of penalties, was something the team failed to avoid throughout the game, giving LA Harbor extra opportunities to score points with not very much distance to travel.
The defense also contributed to the loss through miscommunicating, committing penalties, and allowing LA Harbor to seemingly do whatever they wanted on offense. It was a tough outing for them.
Early in the season they proved to be a solid unit, but with a 31-24 loss in week five to Victor Valley, and now another loss where they gave up 30-plus points to LA Harbor, SMC has faltered. Now, over the course of games this season, the defense has seen itself on the field more because of the offense failing to get things going. That could be the end result of any defense if the offense is failing to keep the ball in its possession, and the players on defense find themselves on the field a lot more, then they will start to tail off at some point.
This loss wasn't just bad for the sake of it being Homecoming, but the Corsairs now have four games left in the season and should start looking towards fighting for playoff hopes. The next four games will be crucial as they are against Allan Hancock (10/26), Pasadena City (11/02), Santa Barbara (11/09), and LA Pierce (11/16), all conference opponents that will determine if they deserve a spot in the playoffs. The Corsairs will have to improve quite a bit in a short amount of time, starting with offense where there's talent, but it's a matter of putting it all together and taking care of the football.
Head Coach Kelly Ledwith and the Corsairs are going to have to learn from past games and move forward, starting Oct. 26 with 4-2 Allan Hancock, who have outscored their opponents 225-111 in their season.