The Ventura College football team's late rally fell short for the second straight week, 17-14, Saturday night in its opening SCFA Northern Conference game at Glendale College.
Down 17-0 in the third quarter, running back Semaj Washington had a 1-yard touchdown run and running back Michael Lee broke a 56-yard touchdown run to pull within three points with 8:14 to play.
But the Pirates did not earn a first down with their two final possessions.
Lee rushed for 109 yards on 15 carries.
Ventura outgained its opponent for the fifth straight game, 416 to 379, but is 3-2.
Quarterback Lee Mondol finished 16 of 30 for 253 yards and two interceptions.
"I don¹t know what happened," said Ventura coach Jon Mack. "We¹ll look at everything and go back to work."
Was very impressed by some of the Glendale running backs and linebackers. For Ventura, it's too bad, because their team could easily contend top in the natiion. They have all the weapons on both offense and defense, but giving up 25% of yards gained in penalties is not very smart.
Penalties are killing the VC football team. The offense looks good, the defense looks good, but the personal foul penalties need to go if they are going to recover. We were at their last two games and were very surprised. Most teams average one every other game. Ventura has had 7 in the past two games.