UPDATE(11/28/09) (4) Bakersfield 17 (8) L.A. Pierce 39 (6) Palomar 38 (2) Fullerton 36 Southern California Community College Post Season Scores SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BOWL (8) L.A. Pierce 31 (1) Mt. San Antonio 69 GOLDEN EMPIRE BOWL (5) Allan Hancock 21 (4) Bakersfield 24 NATIONAL BOWL (6) Palomar 31 (3) Cerritos 17 AMERICAN BOWL @ CSUF (7) L.A. Harbor 19 (2) Fullerton 49

Northern California Community College Post Season Scores BULLDOG BOWL (6) Reedley 20 (1) San Mateo 31

Southern California Community College Non-Playoff Bowl Games BEACH BOWL Grossmont 27 El Camino 22 ORANGE COUNTY BOWL @ OCC Golden West 37 Ventura 36 WESTERN STATE BOWL Canyons 20 Saddleback 31

Last week, I tried to predict the winner of the five playoff games. I said "Mt. SAC will probably blow Pierce out" and that "... Bakersfield has a slight edge because they defeated Hancock once and they have home field advantage." As you can see, Mt. SAC breezed past Pierce 63-31 and Bakersfield edged out Alan Hancock 24-21.

I gave Cerritos a slight edge over Palomar because of home field advantage. Oops! I missed this one by a mile. I thought Harbor would play Fullerton a little tougher than they did, but I still called it for Fullerton. Finally, What can I say about Reedley -v- San Mateo other than I don't need to call NASA - the planets didn't realign an the game went as expected.

So, as I puff up my chest ... four out of five "ain't" bad.

There are two playoff games this Saturday because San Mateo has a bye until the championship game on December 12, 2009. Mt. SAC will host Bakersfield and Fullerton will host Palomar.

These games won't be as easy to forecast.

Bakersfield -vs- Mt. SAC

Bakersfield will probably put up a better fight than L. A. Pierce did last Saturday. They have several potent weapons. Quarterback Logan Kilgore is 122-215-9 with 22 touchdowns and 2287 yards. Mt. SAC's quarterback has 2559 yards passing. Rishar Mathews, Will Randle and Vincen Van Horne are all solid Bakersfield receivers. Randle scored six touchdowns and gained a total of 696 yards. Mathews had six touchdowns and ran 619 yards. Finally Van Horne garnered 486 yards and four touchdowns. Mathews and Van Horne had punt returns of over 65 yards each.

On the ground, Mathew Estil averaged 87.5 yards per game for a total of 962 net yards and nine touchdowns this season. Josh Gallington was 15-16 in field goals and 48-50 in point after kicks.

Defensively, Tanner Webb, Joseph Bertrand, Jacob Cross and Tierney Yates all had 60 or more total tackles with Tanner leading the pack at 77. Bakersfield had 690 total tackles for the year. Mt. SAC has 751 total tackles.

Will this be enough? Probably not. Mt. SAC played five ranked teams during the regular season. Bakersfield's numbers were accumulated against far less formidable foes. The were soundly defeated, 40-24, by the only ranked team they played during the regular season - El Camino, who was ranked #1 at the time.

You can never count anyone out, but it is very likely that Mt SAC will win this one by 14 points or more.

Palomar -vs- Fullerton

Fullerton controlled L. A. Harbor from the start. Harbor tied the game at seven in the first period but did not lead at any point in the game. Harbor mounted a valiant effort with just over ten minutes left in the third quarter. They narrowed the Fullerton lead to two with a score of 21-19, but that's as close as Harbor would get for the rest of the game. From that point Fullerton’s defense made key turnovers and they didn't look back.

Palomar put the first points of the game on the board against Cerritos. Cerritos also tied the game at seven points apiece, but the closest they would come to Palomar for the rest of the night was 21-17.

The match-up between Palomar and Fullerton this Saturday should be one of the best games of the year to watch. Both have powerful weapons in their adrenal.

Palomar's quarterback, Nate Ong, is 121-192-9 with 1449 yards and 13 touchdowns. Their #2 quarterback, Matt Christian, is 87-148-1, has 1198 yards and seven touchdowns. Fullerton's quarterback, Darius Banks, is 84-151-4 with 1091 yards and ten touchdowns. Their #2 quarterback, Kyle Essington is 52-105-2 with 684 yards and six touchdowns.

Add the numbers up and Palomar has 2648 yards and 20 touchdowns. Fullerton has 1775 yards and 16 touchdowns. Palomar gets the nod in the quarterback department.

Palomar's top three receivers collectively have 1557 yards and 11 touchdowns. Martavious Lee is their top receiver with 769 yards and seven touchdowns. Fullerton's top three have a total of 1085 yards with ten touchdowns. Both Palomar and Fullerton have additional weapons: Palomar receiver, Saalim Hakim, has five touchdowns. Fullerton receiver Joseph Florence has three touchdowns; Kenny Turner has two.

Add it up and Palomar has almost twice the yardage of Fullerton from receivers and a total of 16 touchdowns. Fullerton's receivers have 15 touchdowns. Once more, the nod goes to Palomar for total receiving yardage.

Palomar's leading rusher has 865 yards with ten touchdowns. Tyler Lavea has 350 yards with three touchdowns. That's a total of 1215 yards on the ground with 13 touchdowns. Fullerton's Kenny Turner has 1255 yards for 14 touchdowns. Their #2 man, Jereme Lagarde, has 529 yards and four touchdowns. It doesn't take a math major to see that Fullerton gets the nod for a stronger ground crew.

Moving on to the defense, Palomar has a total of 22 interceptions; Arron Garbutt has four. Fullerton has 16. Anthony Young leads the team with six. Palomar gets the interception nod.

In total tackles (solo + assists), Palomar has 21 men with at least 15 tackles this season. Dean Faddis and Chris Bordeaux are tied at 55, with Tevin McCaskill with 49. Collectively, the team has 880 tackles. Fullerton has a team total of 661 tackles; 19 players with 15 + tackles and four players with more than 40 total tackles: Aaron Garbutt (43), Kaulana Judd (41), Joe Morales and Corey Smith tied at 40. Palomar gets the nod.

We could compare the statistics down to minutiae. Stats don't win games - players do. Both teams are in the National Division, Southern Conference. Palomar lost two games in October: one to Grossmont by three points and one to Fullerton by three points. The game is in Fullerton's home stadium. On paper, Palomar is the stronger of the two teams, even if they lost two games. Fullerton's only defeat was to Canyons.

There were four gentlemen from Fullerton who attended this game last Saturday who were surreptitiously pulling for Cerritos to win. I think I understand why: they preferred to play Cerritos than Palomar. Methinks that Palomar will have three points up their sleeve this Saturday.

All stats were graciously provided by the Southern Football Association. We thank them for their help in bringing this article to you.