Brahmas bowl bound Football team set to play for rst American Division Championship since 2010

Jasmin Miko Roundup Reporter

The Pierce College football team constructed an impressive victory with the Brahmas defeating Glendale Community College Vaqueros on Saturday night at John Shepard Stadium.

In a 41-16 victory, Pierce was declared the American Pacific Conference Champions as they secured a in the American Division bowl game. The winners of the bowl game will be crowned the American Division champions.

“This victory let’s us get to go the the Bowl game next weekend. That’s what this game meant. It’s a share of the conference: the championship,” defensive line coach Kort Huettinger said. “Tonight was win or go home.”

The team has been competing for the championship and securing the division’s spot in the Pacific Conference for back to back years according to Huettinger.

One of the most significant plays of the night was the interception by Brahmas’ sophomore defensive back Bobby Baker according to Pierce quarterback Nick Arbuckle.

Baker transferred to Pierce from Glendale College last spring and competed against his former Vaquero teammates, said Huettinger.

Sophomore linebacker Kimlyn Teague made a significant block after the interception that opened a hole for Baker as he sprinted across the field converting a 102 yard return to give the Brahmas a 24-7 lead at the end of the first half.

“It was definitely a game changer,” Arbuckle said. “It gave us a huge lead going into half time.”

The interception and break away return gave the Brahmas a momentum shift the team built on and refused to let go of throughout the rest of the game.

Parolee given deal on misdemeanor

On campus o ender sentenced to six months in county jail

Tracy Wright News Editor

A parolee arrested on campus during an attempted classroom take-over in September was sentenced to 180 days in county jail Nov. 12, according to public safety officials.

Branden Sileon Saighe, 28, was on probation from a previous conviction of two felony charges, according to Shiara DavilaMorales, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney Public Defender Media Relations Office.

“He got a deal,” Deputy Sheriff Al Guerrero said. ‘That’s just the way it was worked out.”

“In the judicial system there’s a lot of compromise made to get the cases going through because there are so many of them, so I don’t know how that was worked out between lawyers,” Guerrero said.

In September, Saighe confronted students and a teacher during class and threatened to take-over the class with a weapon.

Following the arrest, Saighe missed multiple court dates and was arrested on Oct. 19 on an unrelated charge in East Los Angeles.

In 2009, Saighe was convicted of forgery and identity theft of students at other colleges in the San Fernando Valley, according to Davila-Morales.

Saighe was the alleged ringleader of a scam that involved conning college students into cashing forged checks in exchange for cash.

Once authorities discovered the scam, Saighe and three other people in connection with the case were arrested and Saighe was held on $1 million bail.

“You can’t raise a panic on a school,” Guerrero said. “Anybody that gets time- that’s good with me.”

“Tonight’s game, we executed perfectly. We came out with a lot of fire. We had a great game plan that was much different than what we did last week with Santa Monica,” Arbuckle said. “You can tell that Glendale wasn’t ready for what we were doing. It took them a while to adjust and we did an excelent job executing our plan.”

Glendale’s head football coach John Rome admitted to his team’s inability to keep moving the ball.

“I think Pierce has a better football team,” Rome said. “When you turn the ball over for five interceptions, bad things are going to happen. Pierce capitalized on every one of those errors. They had a better play.”

With this win and the championship, the Brahmas will have another game to represent Pierce and leave a legacy at Pierce according to Arbuckle.

Pierce will be playing in the American Championship Bowl on Saturday Nov. 23, where the team will be on the road against Rancho Cucamonga’s Chaffey College, Mountain Conference Champions.

“Our goal is to go smash whoever it is we play,” Huettinger said. “We don’t care who we play. We’re just gonna go in there and beat them.”

According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office website, “The Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act (SB 1440 – Padilla), signed into legislation on Sept. 29, 2010, enables the California Community Colleges and California State Universities to collaborate on the creation of Associate in Arts Degree (AA) and Associate in Science (AS) Degree transfer programs.”

Burke, however, interprets the legislation differently.

“The way that I read the legislation is if we teach the discipline and there is a TMC offered thou shall adopt the TMC and the transfer degree,” Burke said. “There will no longer be an option whether we offer the degree or not. It’s my understanding from reading the legislation that we will be adopting these so that there is conformity up and down the state in terms of the offering of these degrees.”

Although the transfer degrees don’t offer a guarantee of acceptance to a specific campus, these academic routes give students assurance of acceptance to one of the 23 California state universities.

[See TRANSFER , pg. 3]