The Sacramento City College Panthers football team had their hands full with the Modesto City College Pirates in a high-scoring Northern California Conference game on Saturday, Oct. 25 at Hughes Stadium. The game ended with the Pirates pulling out a win.
The Pirates jumped to an early lead and held off a late surge by the Panthers in a 33-22 win.
Jackson Tallent-Berelson, City College Panther’s running back, came out of the locker room ready to play and told the Express, “They were being a little disrespectful before the game, but we’re better than that. We’re not going to match the disrespect from these guys … let the pads talk.”
During the game Tallent-Berelson carried the ball 19 times for 54 yards gained and caught two passes for another 22 yards.
The Pirates’ put City College on their heels with a 13-0 lead in a hot first quarter. The two touchdowns in the first quarter both carried into the endzone by Modesto’s running back Aiden Muhammad. The second quarter gave City College its first score with a strong 34-yard field goal off the foot of Noah Jang only to be matched by another Pirates goal-line touchdown by wide receiver Caden Bailey leaving a halftime lead for the Pirates’ 13-3.
The Panthers quarterback Vince Arcuri came to the fourth quarter with a 26-3 challenge. After Modesto extended the lead in the third with a controversial touchdown, with a 14-yard pass from quarterback DayDay Tafoya. Arcuri found his receivers with strikes to the end-zone, hitting Markel Tayor for 16-yards,then Devon Hurst for 8. With 45 seconds left on the game clock Arcuri found Ryan Wilson on a 10-yard pass for the third Panthers touchdown of the fourth quarter. The time ran out for City College with the Pirates holding on to the 33-22 score.
Vince Arcuri, Panthers’ Quarterback put up 176 passing yards, to the Pirates DayDay Tafoya notching 142 passing yards. On the rushing side, Modesto’s 208 rushing yards were matched with Sac City’s 190 yards. The three turnovers by City College and five penalties hampered the Panthers scoring.
During halftime City College Athletic Director Steve Hanson talked about this year’s team “This year, we just so happen to be in a tough league. I mean, there are some good teams in there, and we battle tough against them. Modesto is one of the top teams in our league, so yeah it is a tough schedule but our guys are playing through it pretty good. We will have this game and we’ll have one next week which will be a tough one, but it should be a winnable game and then Monterey Peninsula. If we get a win next week, we can get ourselves to a [50% winning percentage] and a chance of a good season.”
