POWERING PAST PALOMAR

The No. 18 Fullerton College Hornets traveled south to No. 24 Palomar to take on the Comets for a Southern Conference showdown and came away with a 35-0 Southern Conference victory.

Coming into the game, both teams had a 3-3 overall record, but the Comets had a 2-1 conference record, while the Hornets were 1-2. Palomar and Fullerton first played in 1992, where the Hornets lost 31-18 to a strong Comet team. After today's win, FC owns a 16-12 lead for the all-time series.

It was the second shut-out victory of the season since Fullerton's week one at Santa Barbara City College as the Hornet defense stepped up holding Palomar to 72 yards on the ground and 238 through the air.

FC did not score in the first quarter but unloaded with three touchdowns in the second. The first TD was a 28-yard pass from Tobey Schmidt to Desmond Duffy, then Perry Willams IV had a 78-yard interception return, and Schmidt tossed another touchdown to Logan Lester from 32-yards out.

Armed with a 28-0 lead heading into the third quarter, the Hornets maintained the momentum of the game scoring again at the 10-minute mark of the third quarter when Schmidt tossed his third touchdown of the game from 9 yards to Xavier Hicks.

Running out the game clock in the fourth quarter, Fullerton's Andreas Missick-Duncombe broke loose for the longest TD run of his Hornet career- a 70-yards scamper that put the final nail in the coffin for the Comets.

Side Note by East County Sports Writer Nick Pellegrino
The shutout loss by Palomar broke the school's 108-game scoring streak, which is the San Diego County record. The previous mark was 96 set by San Diego Mesa from 1974-83 before the Olympian lost 38-0, interestingly, also lost to Fullerton in a contest played at Fullerton (High School) District Stadium in South Coast Conference action. The previous shutout loss by the Comets occurred on Sept. 14, 1983 –the second game of the season — in falling at home to Riverside, 41-0.

Up Next: The No. 18 Hornets (4-3 overall, 2-2 Southern Conference) will once again head down to San Diego County next Saturday, November 2nd when they take on Grossmont College. Kickoff is at 2:00 pm.

*Photo by Aaliyah Skipper