Community College Football : Gasser Finds It’s Worth the Wait at Saddleback

Howard Gasser remembers the only time all season that Ken Swearingen, the Saddleback College football coach, raised his voice to him. And he doesn’t want it to happen again.

“It was after I threw an interception in the Grossmont game,” Gasser said. “I came to the sidelines, and Coach yelled at me about it.”

Saddleback won the Sept. 19 game, 35-0.

Swearingen has had little reason to raise his voice to Gasser in recent weeks, though.

Gasser, a sophomore quarterback from Laguna Hills High School, has led Saddleback to a 5-2 overall record and 5-1 record in the Mission Conference. The Gauchos, who are tied for first place with Orange Coast, will risk their share of the conference lead today when they play Palomar (4-2-1, 3-2-1) at 1:30 p.m. at San Marcos High School.

Saddleback has won four consecutive games, and Gasser hasn’t had a pass intercepted in 128 attempts since the Grossmont game.

Gasser has completed 102 of 180 passes for 1,596 yards and 12 touchdowns with 1 interception this season.

“I’m aware of the streak,” Gasser said. “So is everyone else. Before each game, people are always coming up to me and saying, ‘Howard don’t throw any interceptions.’ If I throw one in practice, I also hear about it. From the defense, from the coaches and from the offense.”

Gasser, who graduated from Laguna Hills in 1985, came to Saddleback that year, only to find plenty of quarterbacks ahead of him.

Jason Schmid, the starter, led Saddleback to an 11-0 record in 1985 and was the state player of the year. Pat Hegarty, Schmid’s backup, started last season and is the starter at Texas El Paso this season.

Gasser and the coaching staff decided that he would enroll in only 11 units his first semester, so he wasn’t a full-time student that year, and his eligibility didn’t begin until last season.

“What he’s done this year is really amazing, considering how well he’s been able to read defenses after not playing for two seasons,” said Bill Cunerty, Saddleback quarterback coach. “Reading defenses is something that has to be done every day to be done right. But he has a lot of patience, and that’s the most important thing for a college player.”

In other Mission Conference games:

Orange Coast (6-1, 5-1) at San Diego City (0-6-1, 0-5-1), 1:30 p.m.--OCC’s Bart Recktenwald needs 13 yards rushing to become only the third running back in the 40-year history of OCC football to reach 1,000 in a season. Tony Accomando rushed for 1,115 yards in 1975 and Dan Duddridge ran for 1,076 in 1978. Recktenwald leads the conference with 987 yards in 171 carries.

Rancho Santiago (3-4, 2-4) at Citrus (2-5, 2-4), 7:30 p.m.--Rancho Santiago needs a victory over Citrus or will have to beat Palomar and Saddleback in the final two weeks of the season to finish at .500.

Rancho Santiago is second in the conference in total offense, averaging 388 yards a game, and quarterback Rick Burns is third in individual total offense, averaging 239 yards.

In the South Coast Conference:

Fullerton (3-3-1, 2-1-1) vs. Golden West (4-2-1, 3-0-1) at Orange Coast, 7:30 p.m.--This season, like last, Golden West comes into this game with a chance to win the the conference title. Golden West needs victories over Fullerton, Cerritos and first-place El Camino to win the championship.

Fullerton stopped Golden West’s seven-game winning streak last season and has won the last six meetings between the schools and 10 of the last 13.

Fullerton’s Andrew Greer is finally starting to produce the kind of numbers that were expected of him all season. He has rushed for 390 yards in 69 carries in his last three games and has gained 664 yards in 136 carries in seven games.