The Fresno City College Rams, the No. 6 ranked junior college team in the state of California, won the 37th “Battle for the Pump” in a convincing win 41-7 against the Reedley Pirates on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Ratcliffe Stadium.

One week later, however, the Rams lost to the No. 1 ranked City College of San Francisco.

FCC went into the battle against CCSF with a lot of confidence having beaten their three previous opponents by a combined score of 159 to 40.

“This will be a battle of good versus good,” said FCC head coach, Tony Caviglia.

In reality, the game was all but that, as CCSF rolled FCC 61-0. FCC totaled 201 yards in offense and gave up 644 yard to CCSF.  The Rams turned the ball over four times; three of the turnovers were from their running backs.

Mechikoff finished with 11 yards on nine carries. The trio of freshman running backs Micah Ledezma, Elijah Shufford and Errian Wingfield totaled 46 yards on 13 carries. The quarterback play wasn’t much better as sophomore  Nolen Sorensen finished the game 5-16 with 78 yards and one  interception.

“Everything that could go bad against CCSF went bad,” said Sorensen

The loss could not dim the Rams elation of their victory the previous week.

After a sluggish first quarter ending in a Rams 14-7 lead, sophomore quarterback Marcus Montero threw a 20 yard touchdown pass  to freshman wide receiver  Brayden Sanchez to end the half.

FCC came out more focused in the second half, scoring on three straight possessions to start the half. FCC defense was stout all night, limiting the Pirates to 54 yards rushing and 137 yards passing.

“We kept their quarterback in the pocket and forced him to throw the ball and came up with a few turnovers,” said  FCC sophomore Linebacker Isaac Sarate.

FCC totaled 534 yards, with 260 on the ground.  Sophomore running back Alek Mechikoff finished with 80 yards and 2 touchdowns on 19 carries, while  freshman running backs Elijah Shufford and Errain Wingfield both finished with one touchdown and 87 and 62 yards respectively.

Montero had a solid throwing night with 3 touchdowns and 183 yards. Sanchez caught 6 passes for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns.

FCC season numbers, after  four games are 159 points, an average of 39.8 a game. FCC’s four-headed running back monster, Alek Mechikoff, Micah Ledezma, Elijah Shufford, and Errian Wingfield have totaled 824 yards with 176 carries for 15 touchdowns. Quarterback Marcus Montero has 5 passing touchdowns, with 417 total yards and a completion percentage of 60 percent.