The Southwestern College football team is still chasing the Victor Valley Rams in the American Mountain Conference standings, but the Jaguars will have to look up to host Mt. San Jacinto on Saturday if they have designs on securing a post-season bowl berth this year.
Southwestern and Mt. San Jacinto enter Saturday’s key match-up each with 2-1 conference records behind first place Victor Valley (3-0). Also tied for second place behind the Rams (6-0 overall) is College of the Desert, also at 2-1 in conference play.
SWC (5-1 overall) meets both Mt. San Jacinto (3-3 overall) and College of the Desert (3-3 overall) in back-to-back games before hosting San Bernardino Valley (3-3, 1-2) on Nov. 8.
The Jaguars are entering the meat of their schedule and hope to pass the upcoming test.
Kick-off for Saturday’s game at Mt. San Jacinto is 1 p.m.
“We’ve done everything I thought we could,” Southwestern head coach Ed Carberry. “The disappointing part was the Victor Valley game (a 34-31 SWC loss on Sept. 27). We’ve played phenomenal defense. We’ve played well except for two quarters against Victor Valley when, unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
Things worked out exceptionally well for the Jaguars in their last game — a 37-13 conference victory against visiting East Los Angeles last Saturday. The hosts built a 30-0 halftime lead.
Devonta Wilson got the Jags going with a one-yard touchdown run with 8:59 remaining in the first quarter. Teammate Travis Gardner then caught a 46-yard scoring pass from quarterback Tofi Paopao to increase the SWC lead to 13-0.
Southwestern tacked on 17 unanswered points in the second quarter as Jack Flatau kicked a 39-yard field goal, Sergio Bailey caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Paopao and Chris Kelly caught a 19-yard scoring pass from Luis Perez.
East L.A. got on the scoreboard in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Joseph Garcia. However, the Jaguars responded as Paopao passed 37 yards to Malik Kimbrough to increase the SWC lead to 37-7.
The visitors scored the only touchdown in the fourth quarter when Garcia passed 31 yards to Joshua Taylor.
The game proved to be an offensive slugfest. Southwestern amassed 406 yards in total offense while East L.A. rolled up 331 yards in total offense.
The Jaguars collected 335 passing yards and 71 net rushing yards.
Paopao completed 12 of 18 passes for 170 yards with three TDs while Perez completed 21 of 31 attempts for 165 yards and one TD. Neither SWC passer was intercepted in the game.
Bailey had eight catches for 117 yards.
For the hosts, Divanuel Flores and Trevor Kemp each made interception grabs while Mike Molina had two of the team’s five sacks.
Kemp also had one sack, joining teammates Kalvin Waters and Sean Fuimaono. Ty Stevens had nine tackles.
