ANAHEIM – Anaheim’s nonleague game against visiting Orange at Glover Stadium on Friday night came down to two final drives, and the Colonists came out on the plus side of both of them.
The result was a 12-6 victory for Colonists, who were playing their first game of the season.
A 2-yard touchdown run by Anaheim quarterback Brandon Lopez with 5:42 left in the game capped a 13-play, 79-yard drive and gave the Colonists (1-0) the lead for the first time in the game.
Orange (0-2) took over on its 25 with plenty of time and only needing a field goal to win the game.
The Panthers faced a third-and-13 from their 22 and kept the drive alive on a 13-yard pass from Jonathan Fausto to Brandon Warren.
Later in the drive, Orange converted on a fourth-and-1.
But facing a fourth-and-15 from its 40, Fausto’s pass down field was intercepted by Ricardo Godinez with 41 seconds left.
Anaheim coach Lanny Booher was pleased with the outcome but said his team made mistakes that will need to be corrected.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Booher said. “We actually drove the ball pretty well most of the night. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Orange received the opening kickoff and started from its 30 from where Fausto led a 17-play drive, capped by a 1-yard touchdown run from Alec Castillo.
The drive took nearly nine minutes off the clock, and the Colonists didn’t run an offensive play until there was 2:10 remaining in the first quarter.
The Panthers put together a similar drive late in the second quarter, this time starting from their 16, but wound up settling for a 35-yard field goal from Angel Ramos.
Anaheim got back in the game on the ensuing kickoff, thanks to 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Joel Montes Del Oca.
Contact the writer: lponsi@ocregister.com