Bakersfield College won its third straight football game Saturday, 45-21 over Glendale in a game that wasn't that close.

BC led 28-0 and 38-7 before a couple of third-quarter touchdowns by Glendale made the score a bit more respectable.

It's a shame it took the Renegades half the season to find themselves. Starting out 1-4 has not killed postseason or bowl hopes, but it certainly has put a challenge on earning a postseason berth.

Now 4-4, the Renegades must beat Ventura next Saturday in Ventura, and then use their bye week to prepare for the goliath of SoCal JC football, College of the Canyons. Canyons improved to 8-0 on Saturday with a 52-29 win over Ventura.

The way BC is playing these days, I feel they'd beat those four teams they lost to if then faced them now. But you can't replay history.

Bruce Frieson continues to amaze. Another 189 rushing yards on Saturday, giving him back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons (joining David Turner, 1974, 1975, as only the second BC player to accomplish that feat. And passing J.R. Rogers, who was a hell of a back here.

David Turner (3,026 yards), Michael Gray (2,670 in 1994-95) and George Jones (2,324 in 1993-94) are the only ones above Frieson (now with 2,190). That means Frieson needs 135 yards vs. Ventura next week to move into the No. 3 spot.

Now the Ventura game is crucial. For BC to have any chance of the postseason, it must win next week. An upset loss to Ventura and the Gades are guaranteed of a .500 regular season IF they beat Canyons and a 4-6 year if they don't.

A couple of injuries of note against Glendale: Center Oscar Cuevas was knocked out of hte game early, and linebacker Michael Smith went out later. But BC should get a lift by the anticipated return of defensive back Brandon Miller, who has been sidelined for several games. He could return for Ventura; if not, he's definitely expected back for Canyons.

It's down to the final two regular-season games. Let's see if BC is up to the challenge.

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.

Saturday night's 34-17 BC win over Hancock was the most impressive game of the season for the Renegades.

Sure, they beat Santa Monica 60-14 on Sept. 20, but Santa Monica is awful. Hancock is OK, not great, but a lot of little things made this BC's best game.

-- Only one fumble, and it was at the end of the game with the backups playing.

-- Sure-tackling from the get-go. Missed or failed tackles have plagued BC all season before the Hancock game.

-- Effective kicking game from the scoring perspective. Arturo Villa 2-for-2 on field goals and 4-for-4 on PATs. Numerous blocked kicks have been almost a weekly happening before Saturday, but Hancock never got close to Villa. BC still needs to improve its kickoff play, but that is mainly because the kickoffs aren't going deep enough.

-- Avoidance of those 12- or 10-men on the field situations. Didn't happen once on Saturday.

Some other highlights:

-- A great punt block by Yul Hawkins, a defensive back from Centennial. Hawkins later suffered an ankle injury and was on crutches at the end of the game. But he got the block in the first quarter, which gave BC possession on the Hancock 37, which set up an eventual field goal.

--Tyrone Crawford, a defensive lineman, seemed to be all over the field. He got the game's only sack and made numerous tackles, many for losses, that helped thwart Hancock's running game.

Next up is Moorpark, a road game in Simi Valley next Saturday. Moorpark got smoked by Canyons on Saturday, 48-3.

Canyons, which plays at BC to close the regular season in mid-November, looks like a contender for the state championship. El Camino, which beat BC in Week 3 and is undefeated, doesn't seem like as strong a team as what we've seen play BC the last couple of years. El Camino did beat Chaffey 30-15 on Saturday,

--30--

There's no sugar-coating it.

Bakersfield College's 31-28 loss to Pasadena City College Saturday night is a case of (choose one): been there, done that; or same-old, same-old.

Poor tackling. Defense unable to consistently stop drives. Offense that is pretty much one-dimensional. Those nagging, frustrating mistakes (poor kicking execution, whether it's having field goals or PATs blocked, which is becoming a weekly occurrence, or having short kickoff that are returned into BC territory; lack of focus--how else do you explain the weekly 2-3 times having 12 men on the field?)

BC coach Jeff Chudy challenged his team to win out; winning out is the only way to make the playoffs, he told the team and the media after Saturday's game.

But this team hasn't shown its capable of stringing wins together. The only victory thus far was a blowout of a very poor Santa Monica team. And no one on the BC schedule the rest of the season is as bad as Santa Monica. BC has played its two weakest teams, going 1-1 vs. Santa Monica and L.A. Valley.

In 1986, BC started 1-4, then improved somewhat in Western State Conference play to finish 4-6.

This new conference BC is in, the Northern National Conference, is much stronger than the  WSC of 1986. This new conference is made up of teams that have been successful in recent seasons. That's why those teams were lumped together. You won't see 0-10, 1-9 or 2-8 teams from the last couple of years in this conference. For a team struggling like BC, it makes running the table next to impossible.

At this point, pride's at stake for BC. The challenge is to get better and get a few wins, even if the playoffs are a longshot. The effort is there, but the execution hasn't been. That must improve, or a truly horrendous won-lost record (2-8? 3-7? lucky to go 4-6?) is likely.

Since the 1972 Renegades went 3-6, BC has had two losing seasons: 4-6 teams in 1986 and 2002.