San Diego Community College Football : This Conference Race Is Fit to Be Tied : Mission’s Top Teams Are Separated by Only a Game in Standings

After four Mission Conference games, three teams are tied for first place and four are a game behind.

The first-place teams--Riverside, Saddleback and Orange Coast--all play fourth-place teams in the San Diego area Saturday night.

Saddleback is at fourth-place Southwestern, which is tied with San Diego Mesa, Grossmont and Citrus.

Southwestern, which opened the season with three straight victories, has lost its last two games. Besides trying to stay in first place, Saddleback Coach Ken Swearingen will be going for his 200th career victory. Swearingen (199-51-6) coached El Camino from 1962 to 1975 and has been at Saddleback since. Only Hal Sherbeck (208-59-6), in his 27th season at Fullerton, has more career victories.

Mesa plays host to Orange Coast in a game that features the No. 1 and No. 3 quarterbacks in the conference. Mesa quarterback Jeff Sturch leads in passing yardage with 1,435 yards and OCC’s Keith Jarrett is third with 1,246.

Riverside plays at Grossmont, which is led by quarterback Mike Jordan, who has passed for 1,344 yards this season, second best in the conference.