Pirates’ Williams driven to succeed

Justin Williams OCC player featureOrange Coast end energizes defense with his ability to consistently beat bigger blockers.EAST COUNTY BOWL

ORANGE COAST (6-4) VS. DIABLO VALLEY (6-4)

Location: Los Medanos College, Pittsburg, Calif.

* Kickoff: 1 p.m. today

* The matchup: The Pirates, ranked No. 13 in Southern California, enter their first bowl game since 2000 in search of their seventh victory. They have not won that many games since 1993.

OCC outscored its opponents, 244-203, and tied for second in the Mission Conference National Division with a 3-2 record.

Diablo Valley, ranked No. 13 in Northern California, was second in the Golden Gate Conference with a 3-2 mark. The Vikings has outscored its opponents, 283-215. Three of their losses came to teams that advanced to either the state playoffs or a bowl game.

* OCC players to watch: The defense has been the Pirates’ strength. Middle linebacker Dave Ronning, outside linebacker Aaron Miller, defensive end Justin Williams, defensive tackle Winter Welz and cornerback Cory Nicol earned first-team All-Mission Conference National Division honors. Nicol is expected to miss the game with a hip injury.

Offensively, OCC is led by tailback Robert Aoki, receiver Shane Hoffman and quarterback Kekoa Crowell.

Aoki, a second-team National Division selection, has 814 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 181 carries. Crowell has thrown for 1,108 yards and 12 touchdowns, completing 89 of 183 passes with 10 interceptions. Hoffman, the first-team National Division kick returner, has a team-leading 27 receptions for 498 yards and six touchdowns.

* Diablo Valley players to watch: Quarterback Dennis Havrilla has completed 131 of 236 passes for 1,658 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has thrown 16 interceptions.

Jason Palmer leads the team with 631 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on 152 carries.

Branton Sherman and Rico Hatter share the team lead with 24 receptions and both have four touchdown catches. Hatter has 446 receiving yards and Sherman has 313.

Castine Bridges has seven interceptions.

Football coaches refer to it as the motor: the unseen but obvious force that propels players into, around and through opponents with unrelenting repetition.

Those who have watched Orange Coast College sophomore defensive end Justin Williams readily recognize his horsepower.

So it is somewhat ironic that perhaps the most dynamic engine behind one of the Mission Conference’s leading defenses always needs a ride home from the game. Unless, of course, one hears the explanation behind his postgame transportation.

“I think it was the second or third game of this season that I stopped driving to the games,” said Williams, a unanimous first-team All-Mission Conference National Division honoree who led the 12-team conference with 11.5 sacks and 22 tackles for loss. “I told my dad [Ronald], ‘If I’m able to just jump in my car, drive home and go to a party, I didn’t play well enough. And I definitely didn’t play hard enough.’”

There can be little debate about his effort or his performance this season, which culminates today when the Pirates (6-4) meet Diablo Valley (6-4) in the East County Bowl at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, Calif., near San Francisco.

“I’ve never been around a kid who plays harder,” OCC Coach Mike Taylor said.

Scott Orloff, the Pirates’ defensive coordinator, has been similarly impressed with the former Mission Viejo High standout, who at 6-foot, 235 pounds is often dwarfed by the prototypical 6-5, 300-pound tackles he regularly torments.

“He’s not the greatest practice player, but it comes game time, he brings it,” Orloff said. “His game speed is faster than his regular speed. He never takes a play off.

“He has got good moves, he has real good quickness, and he’s naturally strong. But the thing that is special about him is that he is always moving forward.”

Both Taylor and Orloff said Williams frequently staggers to the bench after a defensive series, physically exhausted. Until the next time the opponent gets the ball.

“Just when it looks like he’s hurt, or too tired and you’re ready to take him out, he’ll wave [a substitution] off,” Orloff said. “He gets ticked off if you try to take him out. I just think that fuels him even more.”

Williams’ propulsion system begins with his thick, powerful legs, which help him generate extreme quickness and leverage.

“His leverage helps him, but it’s more of a challenge to figure out what he’s going to do,” OCC freshman offensive tackle Ricardo Lewis said. “His first two steps are really fast, and he has a really good juke move, so you never know if he wants to go outside or inside. He’s a pretty hard guy to block.”

Williams, who said he can bench press 225 pounds 25 times and can squat 400 pounds, said athletic ability helps him overcome his size disadvantage. But he also credits former OCC teammate Jesse Mahelona, an All-American defensive tackle at Tennessee, for helping him master the strategic aspects of defensive-line play.

“Jesse took me under his wing when I was a freshman [in 2003],” said Williams, who sat out the 2004 season to concentrate on academics. “He taught me to always have two moves to use on the other guy. I always have a first move that sometimes works. But, if he reacts the way I think he will to that first move, I have a second move I can go to. After that, it’s just a battle to get to the ball.”

Williams has other weapons with which to win those battles.

“I never buckle my shoulder pads [for which an elastic band typically runs from the shoulder blades, under both arms, to the chest, cinching the pads down],” Williams said. “It makes it harder to hold me. I feel like I’m less restricted and I feel like I can breathe a little easier. But I think it’s superstition more than anything else.”

Whatever the means, Williams relishes ending an offensive play in the opponent’s backfield. He often punctuates such plays with a celebratory fist pump.

Despite his prowess, big-time schools have shown reticence about opening their trenches to this undersized overachiever.

“He doesn’t pass the eye test for a lot of the Division I recruiters,” Orloff said. “But he passes the film test. “The coaches we go against love him. They tell me all their offensive game plans are built around how they are going to try to stop No. 74.”

Williams said he relishes beating bigger foes, but he does not view his relative lack of stature as a motivational tool.

“I love having a 6-5, 300-pound guy look at me before that first play like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a walk in the park today,’” Williams said. “To a certain extent, I’ve had to overachieve. But if I were 6-4, 260, I’d still try to overachieve because I just want to be the best.”

Though he is clearly passionate about his game, Williams is known among his teammates and coaches as someone who is never shy about having a good time.

“He’s a unique individual, to say the least,” Taylor said.

“As a person, I love Justin,” Orloff said. “He’s fun, he’s always smiling and he has had the same enthusiasm since Day 1.”

Williams, a broadcast journalism major who would love to one day become an ESPN anchor, said his free-spirit label may be a little overdone.

“I try not to take the game too seriously,” he said. “I want to have fun and that’s why, I think, people sometimes think I’m more of a character than I really am. In this sport, you have intense guys who like to get crazy in the locker room before games and I respect that. I let them do their thing, but I’ll just be outside joking around. But when its time to play, I’m in the same place they are.”

Williams is happy to be with his teammates today, making OCC’s first bowl appearance since 2000.