On September 17, the COS Giants football team played against the San Joaquin Delta College Mustangs in an away game in which they, for lack of a better word, absolutely crushed San Joaquin with a score of 45-17.

In what will certainly be one of the higher-scoring games this year, COS scored 31 points at the halfway mark compared to the 14 on the other side, with five of the seven scoring plays in the first half coming from the COS side.

Marking a stark contrast from how COS played in last week’s game, this week showed a vast improvement in practically every facet of football imaginable. Head Coach Travis Burkett had commented on this difference in performance a few days after the game,

“Respect for the core fundamentals of football, as well as the respect of the ball in all three phases, whether it be not dropping punts or anything like that, had marked the biggest difference between this game and the last.”

In terms of scoring, the Giants lit up the scoreboard all night. COS started the game with a 38-yard Kurt Kawamoto field goal that brought the score to 3-0 Giants, which was followed by a Mustangs TD on the very next drive, bringing the score up to 3-7 with a San Joaquin Lead.

However, this would mark the only point in the game in which COS was losing. After a 13-yard pass from QB Nathan Lamb to Anthony Valencia connected for a touchdown, the score would move to a COS being up 10-7, which was an advantage they would hold for the rest of the night.

Scoring picked back up within the first drive of the second quarter, and within the first seven seconds, COS would have their next TD from a 38-yard pass to Jake Tarwater.

The score would then be held at 17-7 for the next eight minutes of play before QB Nathan Lamb was able to break through the line himself when he ran in a 14-yard TD, and put the Giants up 24-7.

San Joaquin’s final touchdown would come during the very next drive due to a 55-yard pass from Delta QB Cruz Herrera and left the score at 24-14. However, a COS counteroffensive on the next drive allowed the Giants to put up another TD on a one-yard shove from RB Aidan Galvan.

As that was the final score of the half, COS came into the third quarter with a solid 31-14 lead, which was made a bit smaller when Julian Garabay knocked in a 23-yard field goal, which was San Joaquin’s last score at all in the day (their last touchdown was in the second quarter).

With the score being 31-17, the Giants countered this scoring drive with one of their own, leaving the score at 38-17 for the remainder of the third quarter.

In the final 15 minutes of the game, COS would be the only mark left on the scoreboard from another short run that Aidan Galvan ran in with 2:26 to play, which capped off the scoring for the rest of the night.

Although, there is still a bit more to look into for this game on the statistical side of things.

The development of COS’ pass rush, as well as the ball control that Coach Burkett had eluded to earlier on, was extremely evident within the teamwide box score. With total yardage of 450 on 54 plays, they averaged a gain of 8.3 yards per play.

There were no fumbles, or interceptions, for the entirety of this game from the home squad. It may be more impressive for the folks who have looked at the past few scorecards, in which ball control to this degree just wasn’t present.

The splits from total yardage put the team at 247 yards on passing, as well as 203 on the rush. In addition to this, they also accrued 126 yards on kickoff and punt returns, which of course went a long way in forcing offensive pressure.

Among some standout players, QB Nathan Lamb threw for all of the 247 passing yards as well as scored three touchdowns on the pass. Runningbacks Aidan Galvan and Danny Olivera both had great games, with 76 yards and two TDs from Galvan and 62 yards from Olivera on 12 attempts.

Danny Olivera also had four catches and 61 receiving yards, while scoring one touchdown. Receivers Anthony Valencia and Jake Tarwater also had one touchdown, and the team leader in receiving yardage was William James who had 71 total yards on two catches.

For standouts on defense, Michael Gary, Delvon Fegans, Michael Machado (.5), Anthony Vaca (.5), and Julian Espinoza all combined for the four total sacks that COS had on the night.

That will do it for this box score from The Campus. Make sure to check out all the other great content on our site, as well as the Giants Sports Weekly for bite-sized reports of your favorite COS sports.