The Hancock College football team, winner of its first two games of the 2024 season, will try to make it three wins Saturday.
The Bulldogs will take on Mt. San Antonio College in a non-league game at Hancock Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be Hancock’s Military Appreciation Game.
The Mounties have done early this season what they typically do – they are winning. Mt. SAC, perennially one of the toughest teams in Southern California if not the state, is 2-0.
The WAY the Mounties won last week was rather unconventional. They beat Ventura 22-14 in their home opener thanks to five field goals, one by Matthew Fidone and the last four by Jacob Bonilla.
Here is a glance at the Mt. SAC-Hancock game.
The Mt. SAC-Hancock series
It hasn’t gone well for the Bulldogs. In fact, they have never beaten the Mounties, at least not in recent memory.
Considerable force vs. the nearly immovable object
The force, the robust Hancock rushing game that averages nearly 250 yards a game this young season, will go up against an object, the Mt. SAC defense, that has yielded all of 6.5 yards a game on the ground.
Mt. San Jacinto, thanks to quarterback sacks, actually wound up with minus 23 yards rushing. The Ventura ground game against the Mounties the following week wasn’t exactly prolific. The Pirates netted 36 yards rushing.
Hancock figures to try to dent the Mt. SAC run defense with a good offensive line and the one-two rushing punch of Caden Harris and Anthony Tucker.
Harris blossomed into one of the top running backs in the state last year, and he’s rushed for 312 of Hancock’s 493 yards on the ground this year. Tucker had a breakout game in Hancock’s 40-27 win over East Los Angeles last week, rushing for three touchdowns.
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The unit has already intercepted four passes. Meanwhile, neither Hancock quarterback, AJ Vele nor Drake Missamore, has thrown a pick this year. When the Mounties aren’t intercepting passes or sacking the opposing quarterback they give up a yard shy of 300 passing yards a game.
The question Saturday will be whether or not traditionally run-heavy Hancock will want to consistently venture into a high risk-high reward battle with the passing game against the Mt. SAC defense. Â
Hancock secondary vs. the Mt. SAC passing game
The relatively young Bulldogs’ pass coverage has been pretty good so far. Neither Orange Coast College nor East Los Angeles could get into a consistent, game-effecting rhythm with the pass against the Bulldogs.
Mt. SAC’s starting quarterback, freshman Noah Fuailetolo, has connected on 29 of his 47 passes for 280 yards, with three touchdown passes and one interception. His back-up, sophomore Jack Benson, is an efficient 13-for-18 for 90 yards, with two touchdown passes and no interceptions going into this one.
The Mounties don’t have a receiver with flashy stats. What they do have is a lot of guys who can catch the ball. Four Mounties have at least five pass receptions and three more have three.
Makai Puga has 12 of Hancock’s 17 pass receptions so far. Five Bulldogs have caught one pass each.
It’s been a force for both teams. The Mounties have racked up eight quarterback sacks, and the Bulldogs have five.Â
