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The Lancers football team continues to struggle on the road after dropping their second American Metro League game at West Los Angeles college Saturday.

Katja Liebing/Courier Lancer's Ty Apana-Purcell breaks up a pass against West LA's defence in a conference game on Saturday, October 8, 2016.
Katja Liebing/Courier
Lancer’s Ty Apana-Purcell breaks up a pass against West LA’s defence in a conference game on Saturday, October 8, 2016.

Coach Tom Maher felt the team came out to the field too aggressive. Lack of communication  on the field throughout the game resulted in personal fouls and costed the Lancers several points.

“We were capable of winning that game,” Maher said. “Today, there was just an inability to make certain plays. Risks were taken today that were never taken before, and it executed poorly.”  

Freshman quarterback Jesse Hanckel agreed with Maher, and wished he did a better job organizing the team beforehand.

“We were doing decently in the first half of the game,” Hanckel explained. “The plays were there, but we lacked execution. I wish I established a plan for a running game beforehand and had more control of the ball.”

PCC took the lead 10-7 in the first quarter of the game, and fell short 20-21 by the second quarter.

Sophomore Kendell Jefferson emphasized that there’s a high standard of focus required throughout the preparation before every conference gam,e and the team did not reach that standard.

“This team is freshman-dominant, and many of them didn’t see how serious this game was,” Jefferson said. “Also, this was the first time playing a game in the afternoon, so warm-up threw everyone off. However, there was so much that could’ve been done to get a win.”

Despite the imbalance between freshmen and returning players, Hanckel is confident the team can lock together, both on and off the field, to identify the team’s strengths and weaknesses with no blame.

“Our team’s biggest strength is our resilience,” Hanckel said. “We don’t just forget about a rough game. We’re going to study both the mistakes and strengths made today from our loss and build upon it for our next game.”

Both the defense and offense performed their roles well, but it just didn’t come hand-in-hand when it was the team’s opportunity to score, according to Jefferson.

“We were able to get the other team into the red zone, but we would just never ended up scoring,”Jefferson said. “There are so many points we left behind on that field.”

Hanckel, Jefferson and Maher have a lot to look forward to for this season, and have their goals for the team. Though there are technical logistics that each area of the team need to work on, the hope is that that the team can come together on the field as a team to prevent any careless missed opportunities for scoring. 

“This isn’t a sport where you can just go through the motions,” Maher explained. “Everyone’s mind was into the game as individuals, but they just didn’t come hand-in-hand as a team.”

The team plans to take this game as a foundation to improve on for their next conference game at Glendale on Oct. 22.

 

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