By Dan Gudino
The football team broke its eight game losing streak, in the home opener against Allan Hancock College on Saturday, winning 38-19.
East Los Angeles College won its first game in almost a year under the direction of first year head coach Bobby Godinez.
“We feel good. It’s always good to win and the best part about it is, we can get so much better. It’s the start of something really special,” Godinez said.
Throughout the game, ELAC committed 18 penalties that gave up 166 yards.
“It’s my fault, we need to address being more disciplined. It’s my job, we have a group of kids who are willing to learn and take our coaching. We can’t continue to shoot ourselves on the foot, but we addressed it at halftime,” Godinez said.
Godinez showed frustration after his team was penalized in the first half and he was flagged instantly after arguing the penalty.
The defense stood its ground and created big plays in crucial situations. It allowed only six points in the second half and caught two interceptions.
During the offseason ELAC sophomore cornerback Cinwon Whitehead said he was going to be the best corner on the team and would be a shutdown defensive player.
Whitehead leads the team in interceptions and has an INT in each of the first two games.
Whitehead picked off the Allan Hancock quarterback in the second half to stop a potential scoring drive.
“I’m really happy our team came together and stayed focused. We executed the gameplan that we worked on all week. We knew they (Allan Hancock) were a good team and we knew they would challenge us. Coaches always know better. They look at the film and I just try my best to do as they say,” Whitehead said.
The ELAC offense made adjustments. Last week ELAC scored only three points in a loss against Orange Coast College.
ELAC sophomore quarterback Jonathan Santos had impressive numbers and improved greatly from last week. Santos went 21 of 34 passing, for 279 yards and tossed for three touchdowns.
“Our whole week of practice revolved around execution, and we still have to get a lot better at it, but we’ve progressed a whole lot. I feel good about what we did. From here, we just keep moving forward,” Santos said.
It was a total team effort as Santos threw to nine different Huskies. His favorite receiver of the night wears number one, sophomore Cemaj Douglas.
Douglas caught six passes for 89 yards and a touchdown. Throughout the game, the Santos-to-Douglas connection was seen in crucial third down situations, and with three minutes to go, put the game away with a 39-yard score..
“We worked so hard during the summer for this. We finally get a (win), and we feel good about it because we worked as a team to execute,” Douglas said.
ELAC will look to continue its hard play Sept. 17 on the road against Antelope Valley College, at 7 p.m.
“Nothing but pride, we have the right coach in place and the kids play hard for him. When you do the right things, so many good things can happen. Just like when you are a good person, good things happen to you,” athletic director Al Cone said.