The Allan Hancock College (AHC) football team got its first taste of victory this season against Chaffey Community College on Saturday, Sept. 20.
The Bulldogs finished their first win against the Panthers by a close margin, 26-24, with help from kicker Jose Morales.
“He saved the day,” Hancock Head Coach Kris Dutra said. “He was a big reason we won.”
The large crowd down in Rancho Cucamonga was roaring for the home team when Morales stepped onto the field with only four minutes left to go in the fourth quarter, Dutra explained
“It was pretty nerve racking,” he said.
Blocking out the noise and using the wind to his advantage, Morales kicked a 45-yard field goal, which put the Bulldogs up by nine.
“It’s a good feeling when you kick, look up, and see the ball going right down the middle,” Morales said.
His teammates rushed the field to high-five and hit the helmet of the game’s hero, Morales said. Those three points sealed the win. Chaffey scored one last time, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the Bulldogs.
Morales totaled two field goals against the previously undefeated Panthers, who are ranked 10th in California. His first kick soared 42-yards and put the Bulldogs up 10 to 7 at the end of the first half.
So far this season, Morales has scored two field goals per game and hasn’t missed yet. This win puts the AHC football team’s record at 1-2, and the performance by their special teams is boosting overall team spirit, Dutra said.
“We were actually able to keep up with the teams we lost against because of him,” the team’s punter, Paolo Ferrer, said. “He’s incredible.”
Morales, whose nickname is “Pepe,” is a 19-year-old freshman on the AHC football team. He graduated from Lompoc High School, where he played varsity for three years scoring 23 out of 34 field attempts during that time.
While playing for the Braves, Morales kicked a 50-yard field goal in a CIF game and was named All-CIF his sophomore and junior years.
Morales took a year off between high school and college to strengthen his legs, he said. The Hancock coaches approached him last year but they already had a kicker, so Morales decided to wait until he was sure to see more playing time.
This season, his decision to join the Bulldogs came at the last minute. He decided to play only a week before school started.
He enjoys playing for the Bulldogs and is getting to know his teammates little by little. Being on special teams, Morales and Ferrer practice separately from the rest of the team. Morales kicks field goals to Ferrer, and Ferrer punts them back to him.
One of the upsides to playing for the Bulldogs is that he feels more appreciated, Morales said. When he played for Lompoc, the team didn’t rely on field goals as much, so he was more of a background player.
“I feel like I’m getting more credit,” he said.
This article appears in Oct 2-9, 2014.