Last Saturday’s community college football game between the host Southwestern Jaguars and L.A. Pierce Brahmas started two-and-a-half hours late due to transportation issues of the visiting team. But for the several hundred SWC fans who diligently waited for the game to start, they got to cheer the Jaguars on to their first win of the season.
“It took a while in the beginning, but we’re finally playing as a team,” explained Jaguar sophomore linebacker Trevor Kemp, who returned an intercepted pass 35 yards for the hosts’ first touchdown in a 23-20 non-conference win.
Kemp, a Bonita Vista alumnus, finished a productive night with one pick, one fumble recovery, four tackles and one pass break-up.
The Jaguars, who dropped non-conference road match-ups at Grossmont (52-10 on Sept. 5) and Santa Monica (48-21 on Sept. 12) to kick off the season, led early 7-0 before the visitors came back to tie the game in the first quarter.
Southwestern took a 10-7 lead on a 35-yard field goal before L.A. Pierce responded with another touchdown to take a 14-10 halftime lead.
The Jaguars (1-2) scored two unanswered touchdowns to take a 23-14 lead before holding off the Brahmas (1-1) in the final minutes of the game.
“We made some big plays, we made some big plays on defense,” SWC head coach Ed Carberry explained. “Some people might have looked at the scores of our first two games and thought we were blown out in both but we had about 10 touchdown opportunities that we missed. Things started to turn around in the second half of the Santa Monica game. This was a good team win for us.”
Jaguar defensive back Cody Springsguth, an Otay Ranch alumnus, concurred with his coach’s assessment. “Instead of being divided as individuals, we put our differences aside and played together to get the win,” he said.
Southwestern tallied 399 yards in total offense; the Brahmas racked up 424 yards.
Mt. Miguel alumnus Shannon Nickson (21 carries, 135 yards) scored on an eight-yard run in the third quarter to push the hosts in front, 17-14, and scored on a four-yard pass from Joe Hudson (St. Augustine) early in the fourth quarter to extend the Jags’ lead on the scoreboard to nine points.
L.A. Pierce quarterback Sean Smith threw three touchdown passes in the game, including a four-yard scoring pass to Trevor Kanteman that trimmed the SWC lead to three points with 7:33 left in the contest.
However, the game finally turned in Southwestern’s favor when Smith threw an incomplete pass on fourth-down-and-one with 2:54 to play. Dominic Morgan got a hand on Smith’s pass to nearly intercept it.
The Jaguars were successful on four fourth-down conversions in the game that proved critical in keeping scoring drives alive. Hudson (19-of-30 for 161 passing yards) had a key third-down pass to Ahmad Huddleston (four catches, 43 yards) that allowed the hosts to run out the game clock.
Malik Kimbrough had four catches for 42 yards while Travis Gardner (Eastlake) had six catches for 35 yards. Nickson also had two catches for 18 yards to add to his big night on the ground.
Smith was 21-of-37 for 275 passing yards.
Hudson fumbled at the visitors’ five-yard line to stall one promising drive by the hosts.
Ricky Barfield led SWC with six tackles while Jaquiel Bradford recorded one sack.
The Jaguars kick off conference play with a game this Saturday at Victor Valley (3-0) before returning home to host San Diego Mesa (2-1) on Oct. 3.
“We have our whole season still ahead of us,” Carberry said. “We still have a shot at winning our conference and playing in a bowl game.”
