Hancock College wide receiver Daniel Rudolph caught Gunnar Jespersen's deep pass from the Bakersfield 28, dove for the pylon and hit it Saturday night. The back judge, standing near the play signaled touchdown with about 40 seconds left.

It appeared the officials were setting the ball up for a potential game-tying PAT. Instead, another official had ruled Rudolph had stepped out of bounds outside the 2.

Hancock, with no timeouts left, never really had time to get organized, Jespersen's fourth down pass was knocked down in the end zone and Bakersfield hung on for a 31-24 win on Hancock's seventh annual Military Appreciation Night at Righetti High School's Warrior Stadium.

The Bulldogs, their bid to rally from 21 points down in the second half and force overtime coming up a few yards short, took their first loss this season. Hancock is 1-1 in the Northern Conference, 5-1 overall. Bakersfield is 2-0, 5-1.

"The plays were coming in," from the sideline, but Hancock didn't have time to set much up, Jespersen said. With time running out, "We just got caught."

The Bulldogs face Pasadena at 6 p.m. at Warrior Stadium in another Northern Conference game. The game will be webcast live at www.santamariatimes.com, audio only, with Brad Memberto and Irvin Kiger calling the action. The pre-game show starts at 5 p.m.

Hancock had come into the game ranked eighth statewide and fifth in Southern California in the latest California Community College Football Coaches Association poll. Bakersfield was rated 15th in the state and 10th in Southern California.

The ending Saturday night was frenetic, with the Bulldogs frantically trying to send in plays on short notice and Renegades coaches in the press box yelling that the play clock wasn't starting soon enough.

After the Rudolph catch, Ryan Anglin got to the 1. The Renegades stopped Thomas Sua at the 3 on a sweep, and then Renegades defensive backs denied Jespersen's last-gasp pass.

"It was just a tough way to end it on Military Appreciation Night," said Hancock coach Kris Dutra.

Bakersfield led 24-3 with 7:04 left in the third quarter thanks to Logan Kilgore's 61-yard pass to Will Randle and Matthew Estill's 1-yard run. Anglin answered for Hancock with a 3-yard touchdown run with 1:47 left in the third.

Kilgore seemed all set to get the Renegades in for the clincher, but Bulldogs linebacker Brennan Locker intercepted his pass at the Hancock 5, and the rise in energy from the Bulldogs side was palpable.

Trailing 10-3 at halftime, Hancock had made a change. "We just moved (lineman) Riley Gauld closer to big James (George), and they were never able to adjust to that," said Dutra.

In particular, the Jespersen-to-Scott Cathcart connection had a big seond half. Cathcart wound up with six receptions for 100 yards total.

Jespersen said, "They never adjusted to (Hancock's change). They picked up our adjustments really nicely early," but the Bulldogs' success continued after the latest one.

They drove 78 yards after the Locker interception. Jespersen threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Mario Jones with 9:38 left.

The Bulldogs had trouble stopping third down-and-long plays all night and, on third-and-nine, Kilgore connected with a wide open Alex Jones for a 64-yard touchdown with 7:39 left to put the Bulldogs down two scores again.

"I didn't anticipate them scoring as many points as they did," said Dutra. "But hey, Bakersfield's a tough team. When you play a 3-5-3 (defensive alignment) and blitz, that's going to happen sometimes."

He chuckled ruefully. "I just hope someone beats them so we have a chance to win the conference."

Sua kept the Bulldogs alive when Hancock caught the Renegades cold on a draw play and Sua scampered 24 yards into the end zone with 4:49 left. Hancock's defense forced the three plays-and-out it needed to, but the Bulldogs after making a gallant bid after taking over on their own 27, had to deal with the wrenching ending afterward.

The Bulldogs yielded a grand total of six points on six College of the Canyons trips inside the red zone in Hancock's 19-16 overtime win at Canyons last week. They turned Bakersfield away twice in the red zone Saturday night. Besides Locker's pick, Bulldogs lineman Falealii Tausaga recovered Kilgore's fumble at the Hancock 8 with the Renegades ahead 7-3 in the first quarter.

It was the long stuff the Bulldogs had trouble with. Kilgore threw for 307 yards. Besides the second half scoring strikes, he threw to Nathan Stevens for 24 yards and the first touchdown. Eddie Coronado intercepted Jespersen's pass at the Hancock 42 to set up that score.

Still, with help from another big game from linebacker Isiah Anderson, the Bulldogs had come from 21 points down against a tough team and nearly forced overtime. What, Jespersen asked, was the main thing they could take away from this one heading into the Pasadena game?

"Come to play early," Jespersen said. "Not shoot ourselves in the foot."