Long Beach, CA - The Bakersfield College football team traveled south to face off against Long Beach City College in Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon in a rematch of last seasons Patriotic Bowl. The Renegades came away with a huge 22-17 conference victory improving their record to 4-3 on the season and 1-1 in conference play.
The win was fueled off the leg of kicker Nathan De Jager going 5/5 in field goals on the night (43yd, 34yd, 50yd, 38yd, 45yd). The five field goals ties the BC record for most field goals in one game and the 50 yarder is a personal long at BC for De Jager.
The Renegades started the night off by getting the first score on the board just two plays into their first offensive drive when QB Jacob Irby found James Holland wide open down the sideline for a 70 yard passing touchdown to go ahead 7-0. They added to the score with De Jager's first field goal of the afternoon later in the quarter. The Vikings got on the board with a touchdown before the close of the opening quarter and added a field goal shortly into the 2nd quarter to tie the game at 10-10.
Throughout the rest of the game BC would go onto add four more De Jager field goals to go ahead 22-10 before LBCC would find the endzone and bring the score to 22-17 with just under five minutes to play. Alex Bolden intercepted LBCC QB Jonathan Murphy with 2:28 in the game to stop the LBCC offense from driving to score and while the BC offense was unable to run out the clock and turned the ball back to the Vikings with :11 to play, the BC defense sealed the victory by forcing and recovering a fumble as the clock expired.
Leading the way on offense for BC was QB Jacob Irby who was 9/19 throwing for 169 yards with 1 TD and 1 interception. Elisha Ortiz led the ground game with 125 yards on 41 carries.
On defense both Jalen Simpkins and Alex Bolden collected interceptions in the game. Leading the team in tackles was Mario Soloario with 11 total tackles (9 solo and 2 assisted).
Punter Carson Olivas was huge again punting the ball averaging 49.5 yards/punt on four punts with a long of 55 yards.
After two weeks playing on the road the Renegades head home for this coming Saturday's (10/27) homecoming game against East LA College at 6pm in Memorial Stadium. At halftime of the game the 1988 National Championship BC Football team will be honored and post-game will feature a fireworks show presented by Kern Schools Federal Credit Union.
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