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Southwestern College’s football team will embark on a history-making trip to Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday to participate in its first National Southern Division championship playoff game.
The top six teams in each of the National Division’s southern and northern regions qualified for the three-round state playoff.
Southwestern defeated host Chaffey College, 28-20, last Saturday to earn the No. 6 seed behind No. 1 Saddleback (9-1), No. 2 Riverside City (9-1), No. 3 Mt. SAC (9-1), No. 4 San Diego Mesa (8-2) and No. 5 Golden West (8-2).
Riverside had been the state’s top-ranked team until edged 45-42 by Mesa on a 33-yard field goal by Granite Hils alum Robert Petrich as time expired in last Saturday’s regular season finale.
Both Riverside and Saddleback finished 6-1 in league play while Mesa and Southwestern were 5-2.
Fourth-seeded Mesa will host fifth-seeded Golden West while Southwestern will travel to meet third-seeded Mt. San Antonio in quarterfinals on Saturday (6 p.m.).
The Mesa-Golden West winner will meet top-seeded Saddleback in the semifinals on Nov. 21 while the Southwestern-Mt. SAC winner will travel to No. 2 Riverside.
The SoCal championship game is scheduled Nov. 28. The National Southern champion advances to the state championship game against the NorCal champion on Dec. 12.
Southwestern lost to both Riverside (38-28 on Oct. 17) and Saddleback (28-27 on Oct. 31) but defeated Mesa in triple overtime (44-42 on Sept. 26). Mesa also lost to Saddleback (30-27 in overtime on Oct. 17).
In scoring the playoff-clinching win at Chaffey, the visiting Jaguars led 14-0, then trailed 20-14 before ending the game with a pair of touchdowns.
SWC quarterback Dominic Duran passed for 287 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Caleb Blocker rushed for 69 yards and one score while also reeling in three catches for 49 yards and one TD.
Christopher Villasenor (six catches, 78 yards) and Kiram Dallas (one catch, 20 yasrds) each made one TD grab.
Jamar Johnson had seven carries for 24 yards while Titus White had two catches for 26 yards and Bobby Cameron had two catches for 24 yards. Cameron also had two kickoff returns for 26 yards whlle Dallas returned one kickoff 25 yards.
Daniel Meadowns was four-for-four on PAT conversions while Aaro Lee logged a 42-yard punt. Steven Benson averaged 60.6 yards on five kickoffs, including three touch-backs.
The Jags had three interceptions on defense: one each by Blocker, David Peevy and Max Gonzales.
Kylan Studebaker led the winners with seven tackles.
Southwestern opened up an early two touchdown lead as Duran passed six yards to Villasenor and 21 yards to Blocker.
Chaffey answered with three touchdowns of its own — 20 unanswered points — to take a touchdown lead. Frankie Villabazo scored ona 17-yard run, then passed to Justin Benson for a 24-yard score. The shots then used a defensive score as Lee’s punt was blocked by Jayceon Johnson and recovered for a touchdown. The extra-point kick failed, leaving the visitors trailing by six points after the explosive run.
Duran recovered the momentum with a 20-yard TD pass to Dallas. Blocker then scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdownon a 15-yard run with 1:50 to play in regulation.
New this season is the American Division Championship Bowl series. Third-seeded Grossmont College (7-3) will play at second-seeded Antelope Valley (8-2) in the American Metro Bowl semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The Grossmont-Antelope Valley winner advances to meet the winner between top-seeded San Bernardino Valley (9-1) and fourth-seeded Santa Monica (7-3) in the championship game on Nov. 21.
