The Vaqueros had a few obstacles to overcome before heading to Lancaster to face Antelope Valley College. With reorganizing the quarterback order due to injuries and a relatively young team, the Vaqueros had a tough time getting a win these past few weeks. The Vaqs suffered another loss to the Antelope Valley College Marauders, 19-24, in Lancaster on Saturday.

It was a close game, however, the Vaqs definitely showed improvement. Defensively, the team showed promise racking up four sacks, three forced fumbles and one interception.

Matt Erickson was responsible for two of those sacks which led to a 10 yard loss and Deamon Thompson snagged the interception and ran for 23 yards giving the Vaqs a fighting chance.

Head Coach John Rome was pleased with the level of improvement the defense had achieved, “We forced a few turnovers, which we haven’t had and that was good to see. Our defense made a couple of key stops,” Rome said.

Thompson wasn’t only a presence known to the Marauders defensively, he was also a threat on the kick return side of the game. He returned four kicks with a total of 77 yards.

However, offensively this team has been fighting an uphill battle with multiple injuries on the offensive line. Unable to get much done through the air; David Arriaga stepped up as starting quarterback and did what he could in the pocket. He threw six out of 12 passes, one being an interception, for a total of 96 yards and a touchdown that came late in the fourth quarter. The man on the other end of that touchdown was wide receiver Deondre Dunn who caught four passes for 84 yards.

Most of the offensive load was dealt to the running game. Travis Custis, Josh Martinez and Robert Jones shared the run game attempts and stacked up a total of 168 yards. Jones also caught two passes for 12 yards.

Custis and Martinez each rushed for a touchdown giving the Vaqs the lead in the second quarter, 13-7. But Custis fumbled the ball at an unfortunate time, giving the Marauders more help than they needed.

Despite the fumble and other mishaps this was some of the best football Rome had seen from his team.

“There was some improvement. We played our best first half of the year. We just had a hard time finishing; we made some mistakes in the second half and those mistakes were hard to overcome,” Rome said.

The third quarter was by far the hardest for the Vaqs. The Marauders marched down the field for a rushing touchdown midway through the third, and made a field goal just four minutes later, giving the Marauders a 17-13 lead.

Marauder quarterback Blake Sheperd sealed the Vaqs fate with a fourth quarter touchdown pass to Derek Denton, giving them the lead 24-13. Even though the Vaqs came back to score late in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t enough for the win. The final score was 19-24.

Glendale football is just over the halfway point in the season. The Vaqs now with a 1-5 record, 0-3 in their conference, only have four more games to come back and even out their record. The remaining games are all conference games too, so the Vaqs have a chance to come back, it’s just going to take a lot of work.

“We’re just trying to overcome and get better. That’s the only thing we have control over. We’re looking to run a complete game with no mistakes,” Rome said.

Next up, the Vaqs will face Los Angeles Southwest College at home on Saturday. This game and all the games following are really important and the Vaqs would appreciate all the help they can get.

Any Glendale Community College students, who have time, should head down to Sartoris Field, Saturday at 1 p.m., and help cheer them on to victory.