There were two distinct sets of cheers following last Saturday’s 28-24 victory by the host Southwestern College Jaguars against the Palomar Comets.
One was obviously for the Jaguars as they picked up their first win of the season; the other was for head coach Ed Carberry, who picked up his 100th career coaching victory at the community college level.
It’s not certain which cheer took precedence.
“It was a thing of beauty,” Carberry stressed after the game, witnessed by a crowd of 600 at DeVore Stadium. “We had two plays where we gave up big yards to them (a 72-yard scoring pass from Palomar quarterback Shea Morales to Johnny Armentrout and a 78-yard interception return by Palomar’s Jay Craft) but we were trying to do too many things at once.
“Our offensive line performed better than it did last week and we were able to score our first touchdowns of the seasons.”
All phases of Southwestern’s game plan seemed to mesh after some parts didn’t in the team’s disappointing 14-4 loss to host San Diego Mesa in its season opener the previous week.
The Jaguars (1-1) erased a 10-7 first quarter Palomar lead with 21 unanswered points in the second and third quarters to move in front, 28-10, on the scoreboard. The Jags racked up 23 first downs to 14 for the Comets (1-1) and out-gained their opponent 391-291 in total offensive yards.
Southwestern converted on 37 percent of third downs compared to 18 percent for Palomar. It marked a big turnaround for the Jaguars, who converted on 19 percent of their third downs in their prior loss to the Olympians.
SWC quarterback Josh Owen completed 13 of 25 passing attempts for 124 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also finished the game as the team’s leading rusher with 82 yards on nine carries, including a 53-yard touchdown run.
Tyler Saikhon (Southwest El Centro) caught six passes for 72 yards, including a 21-yard scoring strike in the end zone that gave the Jaguars their first lead of the game at 14-10 with 1:08 left in the second quarter.
Keyland Chapman gained 57 yards on 12 carries and scored on a 42-yard run with 8:46 to play in the third quarter to put his team ahead 21-10.
Treyvion Davies (Olympian) had six carries for 35 yards while Terry Wright (St. Augustine) caught four passes for 30 yards.
The hosts zipped in front by 18 points with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter when Atotasi Fox (Bonita Vista) scored on a 23-yard punt return.
The Southwestern defense came to the aid of the Jaguars offense, specifically in the second half after the Comets had narrowed the score to four points after capitalizing on their two biggest plays of the night.
Southwestern recorded seven tackles for a loss, including four sacks, and recovered two fumbles.
Jadarius Horton led SWC with five tackles while four other Jags each recorded four sacks: Braelen Bettles, Fox, Andrew Schasa and Brian Williams. Fox logged four unassisted stops.
Schasa (Lincoln) and Williams both recorded sacks as did Larry Matkins and Alex Te’o.
Williams recorded three tackles for a loss in the game.
Ublado Torres (Chula Vista) and Anthony Quinney were credited with fumble recoveries.
Carberry credited field position to a great extent in helping his team capture its first victory of the season.
The SWC kicking game excelled, pinning the Comets inside their 20-yard line twice, including one series in the fourth quarter that started at the one-yard line.
Cesar Macias (Mar Vista) punted three times for a 42-yard average while Justin McElligott (Granite Hills) punted four times for a 34.8-yard average. Macias recorded a 54.6-yard average on five kickoffs.
D.J. Del Fiero (Eastlake) was perfect on four extra-point conversions, though he did miss his one field goal attempt in the game.
Thomas Magnum (Grossmont) returned one kickoff 48 yards to set up the hosts in good field position while Deangelo Howard averaged 24.8 yards on four kickoff returns.
“We had to get it as far down field as possible and not give up a touchback,” Macias said.
“We prepared much better for this game,” McElligott said.
Bad field position late in the game obviously hindered Palomar’s comeback bid. Morales (Carlsbad) was stopped on a desperate fourth-down run on the Comets’ last offensive play in the game.
The play was similar to last year’s Beach Bowl postseason game in which Palomar ran out of downs while attempting a go-ahead score, though it was at the other end of the field.
Southwestern prevailed by the same 28-24 score in the teams’ bowl game last year.
Rodney Thompson (St. Augustine) completed seven of 16 passes for 81 yards, including a five-yard scoring pass to Kyran Griffin to open scoring in the game.
Morales finished with 188 passing yards and one touchdown in relief duty.
Armentrout (El Camino) accumulated 89 receiving yards on four catches with one TD.
Kameron Camp (Cathedral Catholic) led the Comets with 10 tackles.
Palomar lists a pair of former Metro Conference standouts on its roster: defensive end TaSean DuBois (Olympian) and running back Daishawn Lee (San Ysidro).
Big man on campus
Carberry now has 100 community college wins to go with 102 high school victories as he joins a rather elite club of coaches to post 100 or more wins at both levels.
This is his 13th season coaching at Southwestern and his 43rd year teaching and coaching overall.
“It says a lot about us,” Carberry said in regard to the entire Jaguars coaching staff. “It shows that everyone (in the program) has bought in.”
Next up
Southwestern will play its next two games on the road — Sept. 21 at Victor Valley and Sept. 28 at Fullerton — before returning to DeVore Stadium to play the East Los Angeles Huskies (1-1).
Victor Valley is 1-1 following a 37-5 loss at Chaffey while Fullerton is 1-1 following a 16-7 loss to visiting Riverside.
Former Otay Ranch athlete Manu Ta’a, now playing for Riverside, registered three tackles as the Tigers defeated the El Camino Warriors, 55-17, on Sept. 7.
East Los Angeles kicked off the season with a 21-7 loss to visiting Cerritos but won by a score of 45-17 at Orange Coast this past weekend.
