3 Teams Say Yes to PONY Bowl

Three of the four colleges that were offered invitations to the two-game PONY Bowl Classic have accepted, game manager Keith Calkins said Monday.

Taft (9-0), the top-ranked team in the state and the nation according to the J.C. Grid-Wire, has accepted. South Coast Conference champion El Camino (9-0) and Saddleback (7-2) have also agreed to play.

The games are scheduled for Dec. 5 but matchups won’t be determined until after next Saturday’s games.

Orange Coast (8-1), the other college invited, has asked the committee to wait a week to see what happens in Saturday’s El Camino-Golden West game before deciding, Calkins said.

If El Camino wins, the Warriors would finish 10-0 and most likely play Taft in the 7 p.m. game. That would leave OCC and Saddleback matched in the 1 p.m. game.

OCC and Saddleback are currently tied for the first in the Mission Conference with one game left. The teams have already played this season, with OCC winning, 42-38.

The PONY Bowl committee will meet at 8:30 a.m. today to decide if it will allow OCC to wait a week.

If Golden West (5-3-1) were to defeat El Camino then OCC would most likely play El Camino for the mythical Southern California championship and Taft would play Saddleback, Calkins said.

“We are just trying to put together the best bowl package possible,” Calkins said. “I’m not sure what the committee will decide to do but I’m pretty sure we don’t want to give them a week to decide.”