Mesa to Meet Saddleback

San Diego Mesa College’s football team and its top-ranked passing offense will travel to Saddleback, home of the worst passing defense, Saturday in a 7:30 p.m. game.

Quarterback Jeff Sturch, a sophomore from Mesa, is 90 of 163 for 1,199 yards--leading the Mission Conference--and eight touchdowns. He has thrown 10 interceptions, but five of those came in a season-opening nonconference loss to Cerritos.

Mesa’s Jim Courtney leads the conference in receptions with 30 for 408 yards and has three touchdowns. Ron Young, also of Mesa, is third in the conference with 23 receptions for 370 yards and three touchdowns.

All this could present a lot of trouble for Saddleback, which is last in the conference in pass defense, having allowed 268 yards a game.

In other games: Grossmont is at Palomar at 1:30 p.m., Riverside is at conference-leading Orange Coast at 1 p.m., San Diego City is at Citrus at 7:30 p.m. and Southwestern is at Rancho Santiago at 7:30 p.m.

MISSION CONFERENCE

Team Conf. Overall Orange Coast 3-0-0 4-0-0 Southwestern 2-1-0 3-1-0 San Diego Mesa 2-1-0 2-2-0 Riverside 2-1-0 2-2-0 Saddleback 2-1-0 2-2-0 Palomar 1-1-1 2-1-1 Grossmont 1-2-0 2-2-0 Citrus 1-2-0 1-3-0 San Diego City 0-2-1 0-3-1 Rancho Santiago 0-3-0 1-3-0