PREVIEW AND PREDICTION: #2 Saddleback Hosts #1 Riverside City in National Southern League Opener

Saturday, Sept. 19 — 6:00 p.m. | Saddleback College (Mission Viejo, CA)

Photographer: Joey Gray

PREVIEW:

League play does not ease in.

The National Southern opener lands in Mission Viejo on Saturday night with the two teams sitting 1-2 in the latest JC Athletic Bureau / CCCFCA Coaches Poll, both 3-0, and both coming off statement wins. No. 2 Saddleback hosts No. 1 Riverside City in a rematch of last September’s 40-34 double-overtime classic — only this time the Bobcats get the home crowd and the first league notch on the board.

Riverside took over the No. 1 spot after a 64-10 demolition of Canyons at Wheelock Stadium. Christopher Cooper was the show: 23-of-32 for 323 yards and three touchdowns through the air, plus 61 rushing yards and two more scores. Tyler Lewis chipped in a 31-yard strike to Camden Connor. Logan Quates caught two touchdowns. Mahki Gray-Virgil opened the night with a 59-yard punt return for a score. James Holt added three field goals, including a 53-yarder. The Tigers piled up 536 yards and 31 first downs, forced four interceptions, and never let the Cougars breathe after the first quarter.

That was the explosion. The résumé underneath it is what makes Riverside the top team in the state. The Tigers opened 41-7 at Long Beach, then knocked off then-No. 2 Golden West 20-17 when Cooper closed the night with two fourth-quarter rushing touchdowns. Kevin Craft’s group is averaging more than 41 points a game and has already beaten the program that lived at the top of Southern California last winter.

Saddleback has taken a different path to 3-0 — tighter, more physical, and built to last four quarters. The Bobcats opened 19-11 over Pasadena City, survived a 39-36 shootout at Citrus, then put together their cleanest tape of the year in a 38-14 home win over Fullerton.

Freshman quarterback Timmy Herr ran the operation: 16-of-24 for 210 yards and two touchdowns, plus 58 yards on the ground. Parker Burckhardt (three catches, 64 yards, TD) and Jaydus Green (two for 46, TD) gave him answers downfield. Elijah Ayala, Leonidas Bell, and James Taylor all punched in rushing scores. Manuel Maganda was perfect on extra points and added a 24-yard field goal. Saddleback held the ball for 35:22, converted 8-of-15 third downs, sacked Fullerton three times, and limited the Hornets to 222 total yards.

Jeff Fischer’s second-year club is 2-0 at home and has already shown it can win ugly (Pasadena), win a track meet (Citrus), and win with control (Fullerton). That range is the problem Riverside has to solve on the road.

The contrast is clean. Riverside wants explosives — Cooper creating off-schedule, Quates and Connor winning one-on-ones, Gray-Virgil flipping the field. Saddleback wants the clock, the line of scrimmage, and a night that stays inside the hashes. Last year in Riverside, the Bobcats ripped off 20 unanswered and finished it in double overtime. Saturday is the first chance to see whether that result travels, or whether Craft’s Tigers are a different animal than the group that left Wheelock with a loss.

Red-zone trips and the first two possessions after kickoffs will decide it. If Cooper gets loose early, this becomes a scoreboard game. If Herr and the Bobcats stay on schedule, Mission Viejo gets the kind of league opener this stadium was built for.

PREDICTION:

Saddleback’s front and time of possession keep Cooper from turning this into last Saturday. Riverside still hits enough big plays to make it uncomfortable into the fourth quarter. At home, with a year-old memory of beating this program on the road, the Bobcats finish it.

JP’s Pick: Saddleback 31, Riverside City 28