There seemed to be no stopping Southwestern College’s offense in last Saturday’s American Mountain Conference game against visiting College of the Desert. The host Jaguars piled up eight touchdowns and one field goal in flattening the Roadrunners by a score of 59-21.
The teams combined for 915 yards in total offense — 678 by Southwestern.
Eastlake High School alumnus Isaiah Strayhorn led the onslaught by rushing for 209 yards and four touchdowns.
Demonte Morris threw a pair of scoring passes — one each to Noah Jeffers and Ryan Stokes — while Alberto Valdez and Ty’Shaun Whiting each scored on breakaway runs.
“Four touchdowns is rare,” Strayhorn, a sophomore, conceded. “I scored two and three touchdown games in high school. This was my big game (here).”
The former Titan standout scored on a 10-yard run to make the score 10-0 and added an 11-yard touchdown run to hike the Jaguar lead to 17-0 early in the second quarter.
Strayhorn broke away for a 33-yard score early in the third quarter to increase the SWC lead to 31-0 and scored on a 68-yard breakaway run later in the quarter to make the score 38-7.
The hosts scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Morris connected with Stokes on a 13-yard scoring pass while Valdez scored on a 44-yard run. Whiting finished scoring in the game with a 59-yard touchdown run.
Alexander Nixon opened scoring in the game innocently enough with a 30-yard field goal.
Morris hit Jeffers on a nine-yard scoring pass to make the score 24-0 with 50 seconds left in the second quarter.
Morris completed 12 of 29 passing attempts for 184 yards with two touchdowns and no picks. He also rushed 14 times for 124 yards to finish the game with 306 total yards.
Stokes caught three passes for 75 yards while Chris Mack had seven receptions for 55 yards. Nick Sexton had two catches for 35 yards while Camron Lewis made one catch for 30 yards.
Adrian Petty had one kick return for 32 yards and three punt returns for 44 yards.
Nixon finished the night with 11 kicking points, converting on all eight point-after touchdown attempts.
The SWC defense was equally active on the night. Jalen Nelson and Shaquez Bond each had interceptions while Sergio Ayon, Duran Miller and Daelyn Moses-Dunn each recorded sacks.
Noah Shoeman completed 16 of 27 passing attempts for 111 yard with one touchdown and one interception. Kamone Best completed two of seven passing attempts for 34 yards with one pick.
Tony Williams rushed 11 times for 51 yards with one touchdown. Benjamin Myles (rushing) and Jason Orr (receiving) scored College of the Desert’s other touchdowns.
Southwestern improved to 7-2 on the season with its fifth consecutive win, 4-0 in conference play. The Roadrunners fell to 1-3 in conference play, 4-5 overall.
The Jaguars remain on a championship showdown with cross-town rival San Diego Mesa College, also 4-0 in conference play, 8-1 overall.
Mesa will host Southwestern at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11. The winner secures a berth in the American Division championship bowl game.
Jaguar players remain confident entering the conference championship game.
“We have a lot of talent on both sides of the football,” Sexton said.
“When we are all together (on the same page), we are unstoppable,” added Petty, a teammate of Sexton’s at Christian High School and fellow South County resident.
“On to San Diego Mesa,” SWC head coach Ed Carberry offered simply.
