Should a 5-5 football team be allowed to participate in the postseason?
That is the question thatSCFACommissioner Jim Sartoris has to answer followingLong Beach City College's28-9 loss toCitrus Collegeon November 12. The Vikings, who finished the regular season at 5-5 overall, won theWest Conferenceoutright with a 4-1 record.
A conference championship would normally get a team into the postseason automatically, however, the SCFA constitution states that in order for a team to be eligible for postseason play they must record at least six wins. So absent of the required wins, LBCC's fate lies in the hands of Sartoris who had previously mentioned that a conference championship would assure the Vikings a berth in the postseason.
Update : LBCC will take on Golden West in theCentral Championship Bowl.
LBCC struggled immensely during the nonconference portion of their schedule posting a 1-4 record. TheVikingsdefense, which surrendered an average of 44.8 points a game during this five game stretch, was the main culprit of their struggles. The nonconference games LBCC dropped were to Golden West, Orange Coast, Cerritos and Santa Anita. The Vikings sandwiched their lone victory over LA-Pierce in between the Cerritos and Santa Ana loss.
Although LBCC didn't come away with many wins during the nonconference schedule their offense was became more efficient every game. The Vikings started off the season getting shutout by Golden West and concluded their nonconference games by producing 91 points in the last two games.
LBCC's offense, which averaged 34.1 points a game for the season, turned up the productivity during this four game stretch. While the Vikings offense churned out 42.8 points a game, the defense was vastly improving as well surrendering just over 26.5 points a game.
The Vikings, who needed a last second field goal by Alex Valencia to defeat LA Harbor, picked up victories against Moorpark, Antelope Valley and Chaffey as well.
Heading into the game against Citrus, LBCC knew a win would mean they would win the conference outright as Moorpark already had one conference loss and Citrus had just been forced toforfeit three games.
However, things didn't start out well for the Vikings and only got worse once the ball was teed up for the opening kickoff. Star quarterback Ryan Craighead, who has thrown for 2,897 yards, suffered a shoulder injury during the week leading up to the game and couldn't go. So, backup Marcus Moreno was handed the keys to the offense and offense sputtered.
The game didn't start that badly for LBCC as Taj Davis blocked Citrus' punt on their first offensive possession. Ariel Arguello then picked up the punt and returned it16 yards to the Citrus 15. Valencia booted a 37-yard field goal to open the scoring after Moreno, who was 18- 42 passes for 208 yards and two interceptions, couldn't move the Vikings any closer. LBCC, which totaled 292 yards of total offense, went three and out in five consecutive first half series.
In addition to Craighead, several players on the offensive side of the ball have had outstanding seasons including wide receivers Willie Bobbitt, Sean Morris and Travon Payne. Payne leads the SCFA inreceptions with 65while Bobbitt is fourth with 62. Morris is the speedster in the group averaging 26.3 yards per catch.
Defensively, the Vikings are led by Holman Faatili and Dennis Buckner. Other key contributors include Paul Felder, Roosevelt Payne and Montez Hunter.
Other team news :
- T. Payne has topped the 100-yard receiving mark seven times this season.
- Craighead, who threw for over 460-yards against Santa Ana and LA-Pierce, and Payne, who tied a school record with four touchdown receptions versus LA- Pierce, were named co-conferencePlayer of the Weekfor their performance against Pierce.
- Overall, LBCC has won five national titles, five state championships six and 15 conference crowns.
Daniel Benjamin has followed small college football for 14 years.
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor.
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