Jaguars eclipse Comets, 24-10, in rare Thursday night community college gridiron encounter

Southwestern College hosted a rare Thursday night community college football game on Oct. 8 at DeVore Stadium. The host Jaguars did not disappoint the evening crowd with a 24-10 victory over the Palomar Comets.

The win improved third-ranked Southwestern’s record to 6-0, including 3-0 in National Southern conference play.

Palomar sank to 0-3 in conference play, 2-4 overall.

Sophomore Caleb Blocker rushed for 128 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns while receiver Titus White broke loose for an 83-yard catch and carry to highlight the passing game. He finished the game with four catches for 118 yards.

“The game was basically about coming out and imposing our will,” Blocker said. “We have a strong run game and a strong team, so it was just go out and do what we do every day.”

“We just came out of the bye week with perfect preparation,” White added. “We executed offensively and defensively. The offensive line had a good football game. The defensive line had a good game. We made plays all across the board.”

Palomar took the early lead at 3-0 on a 36-yard field goal by Carson Beard. The hosts countered with  20-yard field goal by freshman Daniel Meadows to tie the game, 3-3, with 5:58 to play in the opening quarter.

The Jaguars weren’t finished as Blocker scored on a 14-yard run with 1:12 left in the period for a 10-3 SWC lead.

The edge grew to 17-3 when quarterback Dom Duran connected with White on the marathon pass play with 1:52 elapsed in the second quarter.

The Jags were striving to extend the lead but a botched field goal attempt led to a fumble recovered by Palomar’s Nico Weiss, who returned the ball down the sideline 56 yards for a touchdown with Meadows in futile pursuit.

17-10. There was still 9:58 to play in the first hal but that was close as the Comets would get.

Blocker scored his second touchdown in the game with 3:48 to play in the third quarter to provice some much needed breathing room at 24-10.

Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.

Southwestern held the edge in total yards: 410 to 192. The Jaguars racked up 266 passing yards and 144 rushing yards.

The SWC defense held the Comets to 15 net rushing yards while yielding 177 net passing yards.

The Jags averaged 3.7 yards per rush while Palomar average 0.6 yards per rush.

The Comets did have an edge in return yards: 92 to 51.

Duran passed for 266 yards with one touchdown. Elias Johnson contributed 27 yards on 10 carries and had one catch for 15 yards.

Michael Moore caught two passes for 64 yards, including one measuring 51 yards. Bobby Cameron caught two passes for 22 yards while A.J.Perry II had two catches for 20 yards.

Meadows collected six points on one field goal and three extra-point conversions while Aaron Lee (Point Loma) punted four times for a 37.0-yard average with a long of 44 yards. Steven Benson (Christian) averaged 50.8 yards on five kickoffs.

Malachi Bean-Seay logged two kickoff returns for 51 yards, including one for 30 yards.

Southwestern registered three sacks and held the edge in time of possession 31:50 to 27:46.

Brady Eads led the hosts with eight tackles and one sack for five yards. Carson Curtis had two sacks for 10 yards while contributing three defensive stops. Max Gonzales was next up with six tackles. 

“They do a lot of funky things, so we knew going in that we had to align with them,” Eads said. “We lined up, set the ball, we got physical. They tried to establish the run game but we shut that down pretty quickly.”

Will the Jaguars finish the season undefeated? That should be answered when they travel to Riverside this Saturday to take on the top-ranked Tigers (3-0 in conference, 6-0 overall).

Southwestern remains on the road for an Oct. 24 game at El Camino before hosting Saddleback on Oct. 31.

SWC closes out regular season play at Chaffey on Nov. 7.

The Jags could be in line for a state playoff berth or, in the least, a bowl game assignment. That open date is Nov. 21.