BULLDOGS FALL IN PRODUCERS DAIRY BOWL

FRESNO-- The 2003 Allan Hancock College football season came to a close in a 44-23 loss to Fresno City College at the Producers Dairy Bowl.

Hancock, which ended its' highly successful campaign with an 8-3 record, battled hard in the post-season contest, but gave up too many big plays to contend with powerful Rams (9-2). The Bulldogs committed four costly turnovers --including an interception and a fumble that were returned for touchdowns-- failed to make the distance on a fourth-and-one in their own territory and allowed a two-point conversion on a blocked point-after-touchdown.

"It was just a tough situation for us tonight," said AHC Coach Kris Dutra. "Anytime you turn the ball over like we did, it's going to be hard to win football games."

The Fresno defense showed early on that it would be tough to move on for the Bulldogs' vaunted rushing attack. In fact, AHC's top two ball carriers, Lucious Sloan and Michael Santos, were limited to a combined 70 yards, with 39 and 31, respectively. All told, Hancock manged just 96 yards on the ground. And with starting quarterback Chad Nicholson sidelined with an injured knee sustained in the final regular-season game at Santa Barbara, the burden fell to freshman Andrew Jones.

Jones answered the call, completing 19-of-34 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns, but Hancock was out of its element, playing catch-up rather than the crushing ball-control style that led to six-consecutive victories to close out the regular season.

Fresno opened the scoring on its first possession, driving 85 yards in just six plays. Two of the plays, a 55-yard pass Wayne Desmond to Terrance Grant on third-and-long and the score itself, a 32-yard pass from Wayne Desmond to Billy Jack Erdman, did the damage. AHC's first miscue, a failed attempt to make a yard on fourth-and-one at its own 35-yard line, led to Fresno's second score, a 12-yard run by tailback Nate Wright early in the second quarter.

An interception and return to the FCC 12-yard-line by Bulldog linebacker Chris Nunez set up Hancock's first score, a 19-yard field goal by Brian Schneider. The turning point of the game followed, when Jones' pass was intercepted by Aris Borjas and returned 47 yards for a touchdown with just over a minute to play in the half, giving the Rams a 21-3 advantage at the break.

Hancock rallied on the first possession of the second half, driving 78 yards on seven plays to cut the deficit to 21-10 on Jones' seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brian Watje. The big play of the drive was a 29-yard connection from Jones to Brad Sorenson. Late in the third period, Wright got loose for 45 yards to give the Rams a first-and-goal at the Bulldog one. After three plays, FCC had not gained that yard as AHC mounted a goal-line stand. The big play was a crushing two-yard tackle-for-loss by linebacker Terrance Shamblee. Finally, on fourth down, the Rams' Terrell Howard dove over the pile to give FCC a 28-10 lead.

Early in the final period, the Bulldogs battled back once more, as Jones hit Watje for an 11-yrd touchdown that cut the margin to 11 at 28-17. But Fresno put the game away minutes later, as Desmond hit Marcus Davis with a 44-yard bomb to set up a 12-yard touchdown run by Wright. Following the kickoff, a Jones fumble was scooped up by Levi Ehisz and returned 12 yards for the TD that iced it. Hancock added another score on a 20-yard Jones to Sorenson pass, but Fresno blocked the PAT and ren it back 70-yards for a two-point safety and the 44-23 final