October has been rough for the Los Medanos College football team as the squad has yet to win a game in the month.
LMC has lost their last three straight games and head coach Chris Shipe said it’s not one thing that’s plaguing the team during this losing streak, but little mistakes on all three phases of the ball.
One aspect of the team that has been notable during the losing streak has been the struggles from the defense. LMC’s defense has surrendered over 40 points and 731 rushing yards in each of their three losses during this three-game skid.
Something that may be contributing to the defensive problems may be the group’s youth as the majority of the defensive starters this year are freshmen.
“We don’t get to add players in the middle of the season that are just jumping off the streets,” Shipe said. “We have to continue to keep working with the guys that we have because a lot of guys are freshmen. We just need to continue to keep working their technique and their understanding of the defense.”
Shipe said he believed his team “played well for three and a half quarters” and added they had a few things in the final quarter that came back to bite them. Siskiyous outscored LMC 25-7 in the second half of that game.
“We didn’t execute on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter and it definitely showed,” Shipe said.
A bright spot for the Mustang’s entering this Saturday’s matchup against Chabot College is the offense has gotten back to form after scoring just seven points against De Anza back on Oct. 5. They’ve scored over 30 points in their past two games, but against Siskiyous Shipe said he noticed the offense had some unusual moments.
“It’s one of those things where we did some good things, but we did some uncharacteristic things on Saturday as well,” Shipe said. “We had some drops on crucial downs and that’s not like us, we need to fix that because it’s not going to get any easier for us moving forward with our conference.”
However, Shipe said the team’s struggles were not caused by a lack of effort and praised their work ethic throughout the season, calling it something he “can’t complain about.”
The key to a win this Saturday against Chabot is the team doing something they haven’t done at home all year: play well on all three phases.
“It’s not just going to be defense, it’s not just going to be offense. Special teams is going to play a big role on Saturday,” Shipe said. We’ve been emphasizing that every day, but the players still need to step up and play on Saturday, so it’s up to them.”
LMC is still looking for their first home win of the season, but their three home games have arguably been their three toughest games of the season. Monterey Peninsula, De Anza, and College of the Redwoods all beat the Mustangs at LMC. Those three schools have a combined record of 18 wins and just one loss.
Shipe said he feels the team can make a late season run and finish the year above .500, but emphasized how the run has to start this week.
“Chabot is definitely a team that you’re not just gonna overlook,” Shipe said. “It’s going to be a high level game.”
