TONIGHT’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Receiver Lets Towel Do His Talking : Rancho Santiago: Paul Peters wears a message for opponents: ‘Catch Me If You Can.’ That’s not an easy task.

Before the football season, Paul Peters and a couple of his teammates at Rancho Santiago College decided to get small towels to wear during games.

Peters, a sophomore wide receiver from Santa Ana Valley High School, had the words “Catch me if you can” along with his No. 14 embroidered on his towel.

Sure, some might think such a phrase is bragging. But after the success Peters had as a freshman, it seemed almost appropriate.

He scored 10 touchdowns, including an 84-yard punt return in the final minute of the PONY Bowl to give Rancho Santiago a 17-10 victory over Moorpark. Peters averaged 21.2 yards a reception as a wide receiver, 16.5 yards on punt returns and 20.7 yards a kickoff return.

“It was sort of a joke,” Peters said about the towel. “But it sounded good. It was like a challenge to offer and I like going one-on-one.”

The towel and Peters took a fall three games into this season when he suffered a badly sprained left ankle fielding a punt against Long Beach.

He couldn’t play for two weeks while he rested his injury. Peters said he stayed up nights applying ice and doing all he could to speed up his return.

He was in uniform but didn’t play when the Dons defeated Cerritos in the fifth game.

Finally, in the sixth game against Riverside, he played but at only about 80%, according to Coach Dave Ogas. Peters didn’t bring his towel back on the field until the Fullerton game, when he said he felt fully recovered.

He ran under a long pass from quarterback Scott Wood in the first quarter and finished with a 92-yard pass-play for a touchdown. He also returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown.

“Those two plays told us Paul was back,” said Benny Rapp, Rancho Santiago receivers’ coach.

Despite missing two games, parts of two others, Peters is fourth in the conference in all-purpose yardage, averaging 145 yards a game.

He is averaging 17.2 yards a catch and has 29 receptions so far this season. Peters is averaging 24.6 yards a kickoff return and 12.3 yards a punt return, including a 66-yarder for a score against San Diego City.

In tonight’s games:

Orange Coast (5-4, 4-4, 1-3) vs. Rancho Santiago (9-1, 8-1, 3-1) at Santa Ana Stadium--OCC will go with Mike Cederoth at quarterback for the second consecutive game. Greg Angelovic, who started the first eight games, is out with a sore back. Rancho Santiago is going for its ninth victory, a total the team hasn’t reached since 1962. Estrus Crayton has 19 touchdowns this season and needs one more to break the Rancho Santiago single-season record.

Golden West (5-4, 5-3, 2-2) at Riverside (9-0, 8-0, 4-0)--Riverside already is on its way to a Dec. 2 date in the Orange County Bowl. The Tigers just have to hope they don’t falter tonight. Golden West leads the conference with 24 interceptions, but Riverside relies on the run and leads the conference in rushing with 253 yards a game. Golden West allows 164 yards a game.

Saddleback (1-8, 1-7, 0-4) at Fullerton (5-4, 4-4, 2-2)--The teams have played four times before, three times in a bowl game and once last season for the conference title. This season’s matchup is for little more than pride. Saddleback’s John Burns (935) needs 65 yards to become the first back at Saddleback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since 1977.