The Hancock College football team stayed out of its own way long enough to start its 2025 campaign with a 42-20 win over Orange Coast College at Hancock Saturday in the season opener for both teams.

The Bulldogs did a lot of things right. Behind good protection from his offensive line, Hancock sophomore quarterback Drake Missamore threw for 328 yards and two touchdowns. With Hancock needing a go-to back, sophomore Torrell Harley was that back. Harley rushed for 59 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries.

The Hancock defense was solid for the most part. The Pirates rushed for just 65 yards. The bulk of OCC’s 175 yards passing came in the form of a 75-yard Sonny Tierney 73-yard touchdown pass to Teagan Rumley in the first quarter that tied the game briefly at 7-7, and a 26-yard Tierney touchdown pass to Kaleb Stamps for the last OCC touchdown.

The Tierney-to-Stamps TD pass pulled OCC to within 28-20 in the third quarter. Hancock pulled away on the two Missamore touchdown passes, one to Tay Armstrong Jr. that covered 23 yards and another to Dylan Heath that covered 22.

The Bulldogs did give the Pirates a lot help, though not in the form of turnovers. The lone takeaway of the game came when Hancock defensive back Takai Azziz intercepted Tierney and ran 55 yards with the return for a touchdown.

The gifting the Bulldogs gave the Pirates came in the form of penalties. The Bulldogs jumped offsides on defense on each of the first three plays of the game. That started Hancock toward 16 incurred accepted penalties for a total of 120 yards.

If the Bulldogs are anywhere near that generous to Bakersfield this Saturday, they can likely forget about getting in the win column that day. Kickoff at Bakersfield that day is slated for 4 p.m.

“Bakersfield is a different animal, more polished,” said Hancock coach Ricky Aguilar. “We know that.

“We’ll look at the film, see where we need to get better, and we’ll do that.” Bakersfield (1-0) beat Santa Ana 28-14 at Santa Ana last week.

Semaj Carmichael was Hancock’s second-leading running back behind the graduated Caden Harris last year. With Carmichael out of the lineup last week, Harley took up the slack nicely.

“We knew Torrell was that kind of back,” going in, Aguilar said afterward. “Semaj had a bruised knee and we kept him out today. He’ll be ready to go,” against Bakersfield.

The Hancock offensive line allowed just one sack of Missamore. Missamore spread things around among seven receivers, each of whom caught at least one pass.

Hancock sophomore Ryder Scheid was the leading receiver with five catches for 105 yards total. Armstrong, Heath and Elias Martinez combined for 12 receptions for 193 yards between them, and each caught a touchdown pass.

Back-up Tyson Scott got into the act with a three-yard touchdown pass to Martinez. Another Hancock quarterback, Righetti graduate Cash Carter, scored on a two-yard run.

“The plan today was to spread things around,” said Missamore. “We came into this game with our quick passing game more advanced than our play action passing game and our running game.”

The Pirates defense was helpless against Missamore’s quick passes all afternoon.

Freshman center Sam Atofau is part of a mostly new Hancock offensive line. The line’s timing seemed on point for the most part.

“I thought I blended in pretty well with our line today,” said Atofau. The freshman center graduated from Leone High School in Pago, Pago American Samoa.

“The type of blocking we do here is kind of the same as I did in high school,” Atafau said. “I like the blocking at the Hancock program. I like the downfield blocking.” 

Cal Poly 41, San Diego 17

Pitt transfer Ty Dieffenbach threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns, and the Mustangs won their season opener at San Diego (0-1).

Dieffenbach rushed for 69 yards and a score.

Cal Poly redshirt senior Michael Briscoe pulled in seven passes for 110 yards, including both Dieffenbach touchdown passes. Redshirt sophomore Jordan Garrison had four receptions for 90 yards for Cal Poly.

The Mustangs rolled up 469 yards of offense. Linebacker Mikey D’Amato (team high 16 tackles) and fellow linebacker Kenny Olson (10 tackles, two sacks) led the Cal Poly defense.

A 12-yard Dieffenbach touchdown pass to Briscoe capped off a 75-yard scoring drive on the first possession of the game.

The Mustangs led 17-0 late in the first half and 24-7 at halftime.

Cal Poly will face FBS member Utah at Salt Lake City Saturday at 3 p.m.   Â