El Camino Bowl Bound for Fourth Time in Row

The El Camino College football team will make its fourth consecutive Orange County Bowl appearance Dec. 1 at Orange Coast College.

Ranked third in the state by the JC Athletic Bureau, the Warriors will meet fifth-ranked Orange Coast College, with whom they shared the Mission Conference title.

Both schools finished 8-2. The Warriors were 6-2 in conference play and the Pirates were 7-2. El Camino won its third consecutive title in the conference’s Northern Division with a 4-0 record. Orange Coast finished 4-1 to win the Central Division. (Palomar, 4-0 in the Southern Division, will play in the Hall of Fame Bowl.)

Orange Coast will make its first bowl appearance since the 1975 Avocado Bowl. The Pirates defeated the two highly ranked teams (Riverside and Fullerton) that beat El Camino.

“We expect a real good game from them,” El Camino Coach John Featherstone said. “It’s going to be a great community college game.”

Featherstone said the disappointment of not receiving an invitation to the Potato Bowl is gone. The Warriors would have played undefeated Bakersfield in the Potato Bowl for a chance at the mythical national title, but the bid went to Taft, a team El Camino beat by a point on Sept. 15.

“We can still be state champs,” Featherstone said. “If Taft beats Bakersfield and we beat Orange Coast, we can become state champions.”

Featherstone has an impressive record in six years at El Camino. The Warriors haven’t lost a Northern Division game since joining the Mission Conference in 1988, and they are 38-4-1 in the past four years.

Orange Coast’s LeBard Stadium has been the sight of many El Camino triumphs. In 1987 the Warriors claimed the national title by defeating Taft, 24-7, in what was then the Pony Bowl. In 1988 the Warriors beat Saddleback, 48-20, in the Pony Bowl and finished 9-1-1.

Last year however, El Camino’s 10-0 regular-season record was tarnished by a 21-14 loss to Riverside in the Orange County Bowl.

Featherstone said a repeat of last year’s disappointing finish is highly unlikely. He believes this time his team is better prepared.

“We’re as fired up as we’ve been,” he said. “We’re just real excited.”