COMMUNITY COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : State’s Top Teams Set for Orange County Bowl

It took longer than usual, but the Southern California community college bowl picture has finally cleared up.

The Orange County Bowl doubleheader, featuring the best match-ups in the state, will be played Dec. 2 at Orange Coast College.

El Camino (10-0) and Riverside (10-0) will meet in the 7 p.m. game, and Moorpark (9-1) will play Rancho Santiago (9-1) in the 1 p.m. game. El Camino is the top-ranked team in the state and in the Southland poll. Riverside is second in both polls.

The winner of the El Camino-Riverside game has a chance at winning the mythical J.C. Gridwire national title, but will most likely need some help. Navarro of Texas is the top-ranked team in the poll, followed by El Camino and Riverside. Navarro is playing Ellsworth of Iowa, the fourth-ranked team, Dec. 2 in the Mid-American Bowl in Tulsa.

It took until Wednesday for the other bowl match-ups to take shape because the individual committees had a difficult time deciding on opponents. The Dec. 2 pairings:

Bakersfield plays Taft (9-0-1) in the Bakersfield Potato Bowl; Palomar (6-4) plays Ventura (7-3) in the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Bowl in San Diego; Santa Barbara (6-4) plays at L.A. Valley (5-5) in the Western State Bowl, and L.A. Southwest (7-2-1) plays at College of the Desert (8-2) in the Southern California Bowl.

Iowa State stardom: Blaise Bryant, the former Golden West standout, was voted to the all-Big Eight first team as a running back. Bryant ran for an Iowa State single-season record 1,516 yards and scored a school-record 19 touchdowns. Bryant also set school single-season records for most 1,000-yard games (seven), points (120) and all-purpose yards (1,718).

Bryant, from Cypress High School, was the nation’s leading community college rusher last season with 1,620 yards at Golden West.

Men’s basketball: Saddleback, under Coach Bill Brummel, opens play Friday in its own tournament in a 7:30 p.m. game against Grossmont. Brummel took off last season to be observe Coach Bob Knight’s program at Indiana.

Pasadena plays Moorpark at 5:30 p.m. in the tournament’s other first-round game. The winners meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and the losers play at 5:30 p.m.

Rancho Santiago plays Long Beach at 4 p.m. Friday in the first round of the College of the Desert tournament.

Year off: Eric Pauley, a 6-foot-10 freshman from Savanna High School, decided to redshirt last season at Cypress and, so far, the wait seems worth it for the Chargers and Coach Don Johnson.

Pauley put on almost 20 pounds during the time off and has been very impressive this season. He is averaging 17.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.8 blocked shots a game. He also is shooting 70% (32 of 46).

If there is a flaw, it’s from the free-throw line, where Pauley is 6 of 12.

Community College Notes

Estrus Crayton of Rancho Santiago scored 20 touchdowns and had 126 points this season to set both Rancho Santiago and Mission Conference single-season records. Crayton’s 1,947 all-purpose yards and 204 carries also broke Rancho Santiago records. . . . John Burns finished with 1,022 yards rushing to become the first back since 1977 to run for more than 1,000 yards at Saddleback. Tommee Walker of Orange Coast set a Mission Conference single-game record with 12 punts Saturday as the Pirates lost, 8-7, to Rancho Santiago. Mike Noble’s 10 punts tied a Rancho Santiago single-game record. . . . Orlando Robbins got his ninth interception Saturday--tying him for the Fullerton career record at 15--as Fullerton defeated Saddleback, 49-13. . . . The water polo title Golden West won Saturday with a 14-10 victory over Cuesta was the state-leading eighth for the college, but it was the first for Coach Ken Hamdorf. Tom Hermsted, who still works as a part-time assistant coach and is the school’s athletic director, won the first seven, including five in a row (1978-82). . . . Chris Martin, a standout guard at Rancho Santiago the past two seasons, made an impressive debut at Chapman Monday. Martin had 15 points, including a key three-pointer in the final minute, to help the Panthers to an 80-79 victory over Chico State.