Bowl Bid Assures Southwest Late Loss Didn’t Spoil Fine Year : Football: Coach Henry Washington’s Cougars (7-2-1) gain respect from opponents, attention from scouts and the reward of post-season play.

L.A. Southwest College is bowl-bound, and though it’s not the most prestigious bowl--or an opportunity to capture the mythical national championship--it’s quite an honor for the Cougars, who completed their best season ever last week against Moorpark.

Southwest will gladly take a lengthy bus ride to Palm Desert to meet Foothill Conference champion College of the Desert in the Southern California Bowl at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The unexpected bowl invitation helps make up for last Saturday, when Moorpark (9-1, 8-1) handed Southwest its worst loss of the season, a 17-0 shutout at home, where the Cougars were previously undefeated.

“It was strange (to lose at home),” said Southwest’s star defensive end, Chris Mims. “It was just hard to be out there. They just cracked us.”

The sour ending, however, can’t erase a successful campaign (7-2-1, 6-2-1). Southwest finished second to Moorpark in the Northern Division of the Western State Conference. The Cougars were also invited to the Western State Bowl, hosted by Valley College.

Not too shabby for a school that didn’t have a football team three years ago.

In 1986, financial problems in the L.A. Community College District forced Southwest to cancel football for one year. Before that, the Cougars had had only one winning season since Henry Washington took over as coach in 1982. They went 6-4 in 1984 and 5-5 in 1983. The year before the program was discontinued, Southwest finished a disappointing 2-8.

But after reinstating football, the Cougars have improved steadily. In 1987 they went 3-7, and last year, their first in the WSC, they finished 5-5 despite being in a tough league with Bakersfield, the national champions, and Glendale, also a California powerhouse.

This season Southwest broke into the state’s top 10 and the nation’s top 20 after beating L.A. Pierce on Oct. 14. A week later, after defeating Glendale 26-10, Southwest received its highest national ranking, No. 17, by the JC Grid Wire.

“We beat a lot of teams that people thought we shouldn’t have,” Mims said. “We worked hard, and it helped us get noticed. Now we’re ready to go to this bowl game and win because we want to go out on a good note.”

Coach Washington said: “I think people respect what we’re doing and what we’ve accomplished. We’ve come a long way.”

Before falling to Moorpark, the Cougars were ranked 10th in the state by the JC Athletic Bureau. Their only other loss was to Ventura on Oct. 28, when Ventura was ranked sixth in the state and No. 1 in the conference.

“We felt L.A. (Southwest) was one of the more physical teams we’ve played all year,” said Ventura Coach Phil Passno, whose team will play in the Hall of Fame Bowl on Saturday. “They’ve got a lot of tools. It was a very hard-fought football game. They hurt us a lot. We haven’t been the same since.”

Southwest’s tie came Oct. 7 against Bakersfield, a team that whipped the Cougars, 56-3, last year. This year’s score was 17-17, satisfying considering that Southwest had to play in front of a large and rowdy Bakersfield crowd.

“The best part of the season,” Washington said, “was going up and having a shot at beating Bakersfield. It brought a lot of confidence in me and my assistant coaches and the program in general.”

There have been a lot of other good things about this season. The biggest is that this is undoubtedly Southwest’s deepest and most talented team ever.

“We’ve had more (college) scouts than ever,” Washington said. “Not a day has passed without at least one out there watching us. We have 17 sophomores, and about 10 to 14 will get scholarships.”

Most will go to the defense, which Washington credits with a great deal of the team’s success. The Cougars rank among the state’s top 10 in that area, thanks to a tough line and outstanding performances by defensive back Lorenzo Dickson (6-foot-3, 190 pounds) and ends Bernard Dafney (6-7, 285) and Mims (6-6, 230).

“They’re big and they’re very physical,” said West L.A. Coach Dick Jones, whose team was shut out by Southwest, 41-0. “They just come after you. They have a lot of great players.”

The Cougars’ offense has also been productive though young and often inconsistent. Freshman quarterback Craig Manigo (Leuzinger High) has completed 136 of 235 passes for 1,672 yards and 19 touchdowns. His top receiver is sophomore Ansel Littlejohn (6-0, 170), who has 45 receptions for 738 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“We know we’re in for a long evening,” said College of the Desert assistant coach Richard Davis. “They’re very gifted athletic-wise.”

And most of the coaches in the 12-member WSC agree with him.