In the immediate afterglow of the most successful football season in school history, Golden West College coach Nick Mitchell, surrounded by his players and drenched in Gatorade, had one message.
"Our season is not over with," Mitchell said after Golden West's 30-6 win on the road against Saddleback on Saturday night, giving the Rustler's a school-record nine regular-season wins.
The scope of Golden West's next game, however, will be decided today, when the California Community Colleges Football Coaches Association releases its weekly poll.
Southern California conference winners Fullerton (10-0), Riverside (9-1) and Canyons (8-2) get automatic bids into the four-team regional playoffs, but the final spot goes to an at-large team.
Golden West (9-1), which finished second in the Southern Conference, appears to be the best candidate for the at-large berth, with Mt. San Antonio (8-2) right behind. The hightest ranked team that doesn't have an automatic bid will get the at-large berth. Fourteen coaches can vote in the poll and Mitchell is not one of them.
The Rustlers earned a spot in the playoff conversation with arguably their best defensive effort of the season. They forced four turnovers (two interceptions, two fumbles) and made the Gauchos (5-5) turn the ball over on downs four times.
Saddleback came in averaging more than 40 points a game and the last time it scored fewer than seven points was in 2000.
The Golden West offense was inconsistent, but got two touchdown passes from freshman quarterback Chris d'Entremont (18 of 30 for 234 yards) and ran for 234 yards on just 18 carries, led by 73 on seven carries from Kyrel Brown.
"We were inconsistent on offense tonight, but made a couple of big plays to get us the lead, and the defense was huge in shutting them down," Mitchell said. "I mean, nobody thought we'd hold them to no touchdowns."
Saddleback's Tim Belman threw for 314 yards on 33 of 53 passing and came up 55 yards short of the career national passing yards record for junior colleges. The sophomore has 7,018 career passing yards and could still get the record if the Gauchos are selected for a bowl game.
Written By: Jeremy Balan, OC Register
