Just win, baby. That seems to be the mantra the Southwestern College football team has followed the last three weeks.
The Jaguars extended their winning streak to five games by out-lasting the visiting San Bernardo Valley Wolverines, 46-44, last Saturday.
The win raised Southwestern’s record to 8-1 on the season and 5-1 in American Mountain Conference play.
The Jags continue to occupy sole possession of second place in the standings behind the undefeated Victor Valley Rams (9-0 overall, 6-0 in conference).
But maintaining the one-game spread from Victor Valley has not been easy since SWC’s 34-31 loss to the visiting Rams on Sept. 27. Prior to defeating SBV last week, the Jags had defeated, in order, Mt. San Jacinto, 34-31, on Oct. 25 and College of the Desert, 41-33, on Nov. 1.
In the game at Mt. San Jacinto, Southwestern rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to eventually post the win. In the game at College of the Desert, the visiting Jaguars built a 34-0 lead on the scoreboard only to see the Roadrunners storm back with 26 unanswered points.
“We came from behind to beat Mt. San Jacinto College … we came from ahead to beat College of the Desert,” SWC head coach Ed Carberry quipped.
It took a blocked field goal by ex-Chula Vista High School standout Mike Molina with 14.9 seconds to play to finally subdue the Wolverines last week.
But even winning ugly is still winning, Carberry noted.
“It’s been insane,” Carberry explained. “Everybody knows how to win … winners win. These guys, most of them come from winning high school programs, and they’ve brought it right here. That’s a large part of our success.”
And the Jaguars are winning.
Southwestern has one final regular season game left on its 2014 schedule — this Saturday at winless El Camino-Compton Center (0-9 on the season, 0-6 in conference play). Should the Jaguars win that game to finish regular season play with a 9-1 record, Southwestern is expected to receive a bid to play in its third consecutive JC bowl game, which would be a school record.
The bowl game would be played Nov. 22 at a site to be announced, though it’s believed if the Jags should finish 9-1 that the game would be played at Southwestern College.
The Jags have hosted their last two bowl games, both at Olympian High School while Devore Stadium was being refurbished.
Bowl bids will be announced Sunday.
Carberry underscored what the team is on the verge of accomplishing.
“Some guys have been here four months, some guys have been a year, some two, and a handful of players and coaches have been here for three years waiting for this moment,” he said. “It can’t be had for another three years, so we can’t screw it up. Hopefully, we can come through. It’s been awesome.”
Tale of the tape
Southwestern scored the first points against San Bernardino Valley (5-4 overall, 3-3 in conference) as Anthony Herrera kicked a 26-yard field goal with 8:29 left in the opening quarter. But the Wolverines countered with two touchdown to lead 13-3.
Kendrick Dorn scored on an 18-yard run while Lonnie Johnson caught a 13-yard scoring pass from Daniel Epperson. The latter drive took just two plays and 37 seconds to cover 22 yards.
The first quarter ended 13-6 in the visitors’ favor after Herrera kicked a 33-yard field goal.
But the Wolverines quickly came back to go up 20-6 on the scoreboard and, in the process, create a lot of uneasiness on the SWC sideline with a bowl berth at stake. Epperson passed 20 yards to D Barrientos-J to record SBV’s third touchdown of the game.
A flurry of points over the remainder of the first half left the Wolverines with a 29-23 halftime edge.
Travis Gardner caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Luis Perez as the hosts pulled to within 20-13 on the scoreboard. But the Wolverines once again countered that with another TD strike from Epperson to Barrientos-J, this time from 17 yards out.
26-13 San Bernardino Valley.
But Sergio Bailey brought Southwestern closer when he caught a 29-yard scoring pass from Perez with 4:23 to play in the quarter to narrow the deficit to 26-20.
The Jaguars retained the momentum when Herrera kicked his third field goal of the half to trim the Wolverine lead to 26-23 with 1:29 left. But the visitors came back to boot a 29-yard field goal as Cody Madsen split the uprights with 24 seconds to play before halftime.
Southwestern stormed out of the intermission break with a renewed sense of purpose to score three consecutive touchdowns to take a seemingly comfortable 43-31 lead.
Perez hit Gardner from seven yards out to tie the game, 29-29, with just 54 seconds elapsed in the third quarter. However, the extra-point attempt was blocked and returned 98 yards by Stefen Kirkland for two points to put the visitors back in front 31-29.
No matter. On San Bernardo Valley’s first play after the ensuing kick-off, Epperson pitched the ball into the backfield on a running play. However, the running back the ball was intended for was not in position to receive it and the ball instead was left rolling in the backfield.
A quick thinking Blake Wilson quickly scooped up the loose ball and returned the fumble 20 yards for a score to give Southwestern two touchdowns in a span of just seven seconds.
This time Herrera’s PAT conversion was good to put the Jaguars ahead 36-31.
The SWC lead grew to 12 points when Malik Kimbrough returned a SBV punt 46 yards for a touchdown with 8:50 to play in the third quarter.
Dorn closed out the quarter with a five-yard touchdown run to bring the Wolverines to within six points on the scoreboard at 43-37.
The pace of the game figured to keep the score in doubt until the final snap.
Herrera booted his fourth field goal of the game with 9:09 to play in the fourth quarter to extend the SWC lead to 46-37. But Dorn scored his third touchdown of the game with 6:02 left to narrow the score to 46-44.
The Jaguars appeared to have a promising drive going in the final minutes after holding onto the ball for nearly four minutes before being forced to punt.
The visitors took over at their own 16-yard line with 2:25 to play and methodically moved down field with a series of clutch running and passing plays to wind up at the SWC 10-yard line with 23 second left.
An incompletion brought out Madsen for the potential game-winning field goal with 18.8 seconds left. It would have been a chip shot from 27 yards out.
But Molina got his hand up in the ball’s flight path and swatted it down. Teammate Sean Fuimaono then recovered the ball in the SBV backfield to deny the visitors the winning points.
SWC then went into victory formation for the final 14.9 seconds to escape with the win.
“We were thinking we had to hunker down, have heart,” Molina said. “It came down to the end, we had this battle all the way. At the final moment, we knew we just had to have it, dig deep, want it.”
Make no mistake, all of the Jaguars knew the significance attached to the outcome of the game.
“This was a win or not get into a bowl game,” Wilson explained. “It pretty much came down to that. We needed to win this one, and we pulled it out.”
And the Jags live on for another week — and just maybe two.
Final word
San Bernardino out-gained Southwestern 503-423 in total yards. The Jaguars found success through the airwaves with 337 net passing yards.
Perez completed 31 of 44 attempts for 299 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Tofi Paopao tacked on 38 passing yards by completing three of his six attempts.
Bailey had 10 catches for 152 yards and one score while Gardner had three catches for 53 yards to go with his two touchdowns. Kevin Mills had 12 catches for 74 yards .
Diego Rodriguez led SWC’s rushing attack with 12 carries for 46 yards.
Omar Hernandez averaged 61.7 yards on 10 kick-offs, recording six touchbacks, while Zack Kozlik averaged 34.2 yards on five punts.
Morgan had one pick in the game for the Jags while Wilson and Stevens each made fumble recoveries. Southwestern’s defense totaled five sacks in the game, including 1.5 by Molina and one each by teammates Ray Clapper, Wilson and Estevan Rodriguez. Lasage Fuga also was credited with a half-sack.
American Mountain Conference
2014 Football Standings
(Through Nov. 8)
Victor Valley 6-0, 9-0
Southwestern 5-1, 8-1
San Bernardino 3-3, 5-4
College of the Desert 3-3, 4-5
San Diego Mesa 3-3, 4-5
East Los Angeles 2-4, 3-6
Mt. San Jacinto 2-4, 3-6
El Camino-Compton Center 0-6, 0-9
Saturday, Nov. 8
Southwestern 46, San Bernardino Valley 44
East Los Angeles 46, Mt. San Jacinto 43
San Diego Mesa 48, El Camino-Compton Center 14
Victor Valley 52, College of the Desert 14
Saturday, Nov. 1
Southwestern 41, College of the Desert 33
San Bernardino Valley 68, El Camino-Compton Center 7
San Diego Mesa 9, East Los Angeles 7
Victor Valley 28, Mt. San Jacinto 21
