COSTA MESA — Despite a miraculous comeback by the Ventura College football team, Golden West, playing in the postseason for the first time in 34 years, was preening after the Rooster Bowl on Saturday night.
Chris Spencer’s two-point conversion run in overtime pushed Golden West past Ventura, 37-36, in the Orange County Rooster Bowl at LeBard Stadium.
Playing in their 1st bowl game since 1975, Rustlers extended their winning streak to 7 games, finishing the season 7-4.
Leading 26-29 in the final seconds, Ventura College’s Quarterback was tackled out of bounds with no time on the clock on the Golden West 27-yard line.
But a personal foul gave the Pirates an untimed down on the Rustlers 12, which enabled Tyler Stampler to force overtime by converting a 30-yard field goal.
On the first possession of overtime, Sims found tight end Michael Holcomb for an 11-yard touchdown pass. But Golden West matched that score with a 23-yard Mike VanDeripe strike to Matt James.
Golden West kicker Eric Torres was roughed on the extra point and Nick Mitchell elected to give Spencer the chance to decide the game from a yard-and-a-half away.
VanDeripe completed 21 of 35 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted in the first half by Ventura’s Chad Kurz, Deslonde Brown and Darryl Simmons, but played a flawless second half, which included a rumbling 22-yard touchdown run through the Pirates’ secondary, which gave the Rustlers their 29-26 lead with 26 seconds to play.
Ventura had already made a pair of comebacks.
Trailing 14-7 at the half, Ventura running back Dominic Morris gained 15 and 19 yards before his 6-yard touchdown run pulled the Pirates even 14-14 with 11:00 left in the third quarter.
After Spencer’s 3-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-two allowed Golden West to reclaim the lead, Sims found Karam for a 14-yard touchdown pass on third-and-13 to tie the score, 21-21, with 8:45 to play.
Four plays later, Golden West snapped the ball out of the end zone in a punting situation to hand Ventura a 23-21 lead.
But that was only the beginning of a wild finish. Sims followed with a potential clinching 5-yard touchdown pass to Rafael Washington, but the tight end was judged to have stepped out of bounds in the back of the end zone. Stampler was forced to kick a 23-yard field goal for a 26-21 lead with 3:45 to play.
