Saddleback College football wins sixth straight, 48-7 victory over Southwestern College

Freshman defensive backs Coen Ali and Landon Hodges celebrating a fumble recovery with their team  Nick Adamson | Lariat

Saddleback football is now 8-1 on the season and 6-0 in conference play after a decisive home win over the Southwestern College Cougars.

This win was crucial as the Bobcats are now set to take on El Camino College for the league title.

​It was around one in the afternoon when Saddleback won the coin toss and elected to defer.​

Southwestern received the ball, then proceeded to drive 72 yards down the field and score. This score came when Southwestern quarterback Brayten Silbor threw a 30-yard pass to receiver Josiah Jefferson, completing a perfect opening drive.

Southwestern was looking great on defense as well in the first quarter, allowing only seven yards on six plays.

Unfortunately for Southwestern and their fans, this did not last. The Jaguars didn’t do anything significant for the rest of the game. On the other hand, Saddleback stood tall and showed why they are a contender for the league title.

​With four minutes remaining in the first quarter, Freshman defensive back Kyle Nguyen intercepted a pass from Silbor and ran it back 65 yards for a touchdown. This tied the score 7-7.​

Kyle Nguyen celebrating his pick-six  Nick Adamson | Lariat

“You can feel like the energy is kind of down, which it’s not supposed to be,” said Nguyen. “But after that, everything was turned up after that. It was lit.”

Sophomore quarterback Tyler Dudden took over in the second quarter, throwing a touchdown pass to Sophomore receiver Nick Gentilella, and rushing for two touchdowns on his own.

Dudden scored another rushing touchdown after halftime when he scampered into the endzone, pushing the score up to 35-7.

“I mean we knew what Southwestern was going to do. They show a lot of what they do on film and it’s obvious that they run that 4-2.” Said Dudden, “They’re either going to run cover 4 and cover 3 buzz. So their defense wasn’t anything difficult. We’ve seen a lot harder this year and we kind of just pounded the ball on them all day. So that kind of helped out to me being able to kind of create plays and make plays on my feet.”

Tyler Dudden withstanding a tackle for a touchdown  Nick Adamson | Lariat

Tyler also took a large helmet-to-helmet hit and didn’t flinch.

“Yeah, that just goes back to trying to be a leader, you know? Lead them by what you do and I want to be a leader by showing my boys that I’m on that field too, with them. You know what I’m saying? It’s not just them trying to make plays and me sitting back there like, it’s like if you want to pop, I want to pop to, you know? So yeah that’s what that mindset is.”

This is when Jaylen Beverly-Rushing stepped in, one of the Bobcats’ halfbacks. Jaylen scored Saddleback’s final two touchdowns of the game, on three and six-yard runs.

Jaylen Beverly-Rushing powering through a defender for a touchdown  Nick Adamson | Lariat

After allowing a touchdown to start the game, Saddleback would score 48 unanswered points. This was a complete performance on both sides of the ball for Saddleback, and a great sign going into their final game of the season.

Head coach Jeff Fischer seemed pleased with the team’s turnaround.

“I thought defense made a few plays that got us excited. They got a pick-six, and then we got another interception and it got us jump-started. Came out a little slow, started off down 7-0 and defense made a couple plays that got us excited and going and then there was no turning back from there.”

Coach Fischer also seemed very pleased with how they’ve bounced back since their loss at Fullerton in week two.

“We’re doing a great job in the trenches on both sides and key games, though that’s what matters most. We’re making enough plays on the outside and we’re coming together as a team at the right moment. Early on in the season, we were probably a little behind on offense and now we’ve kept getting better, week by week and really peaking at the right moment.”

Saddleback’s final game of the season is a home game on Saturday at 1 pm, where they take on 8-1 El Camino College for the league title.

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