Bakersfield College coach Jeff Chudy said he thought the Renegades would be a pretty good team by the time the season ended.

And after winning two straight games impressively, it looks like he's right.

The 30-0 win over Moorpark on Saturday was BC's second straight solid effort, following up on the 34-17 win over Allan Hancock a week earlier. These have been BC's best two games of the season.

So why the turnaround? The biggest reason is reducing mistakes. BC has settled into running the ball about 80-90 percent of the time, and when the 'Gades are posting nearly 400 rushing yards a game (like they have the last two weeks), that's a good strategy.

What will happen when the running game is contained? Well, that's the question, isn't it? 

Quarterback Joe Maldonado, the former South High standout, had his first collegiate start against Moorpark and his only pass completion was a perfectly-thrown 42-yard bomb to William Randle to the goal line for a touchdown. He had one other long pass attempt to Randle, but it bounced off Randle's hands (also perfectly thrown) who was distracted by a tight-covering defensive back.

Maldonado is only listed at 5-10 and 180 pounds, but it seems like he's closer to 5-8 and 165. But he showed the quickness as a runner that he demonstrated at South several seasons ago and has that knack of making big plays when needed. Again, time will tell if he can do that against powerhouse teams (like College of the Canyons in BC's regular season finale in mid-November).

BC is 3-4 and now has to be considered the favorite in its next two games, the home contest next Saturday vs. Glendale and the road game at Ventura a week from Saturday.

To make the playoffs (which seemed so unlikely just two weeks ago), BC must finish no lower than second place in the National Northern Conference. Canyons remained unbeaten Saturday with its latest demolition of an opponent, 43-23 over Glendale.

BC got some help when Pasadena, which beat BC earlier this season and was undefeated in the conference, was beaten 45-42 by Hancock.

But now there's some optimism and momentum for BC heading into these next couple of games. BC also has a bye week after Ventura before powerful Canyons comes to town to close out the regular season. Canyons is still the biggest hurdle. You'd have to rank Canyons, Mount SAC and Saddleback as the top teams in the South, with El Camino probably behind those three but ahead of everyone else. All 4 are undefeated.

That's all for now.