COLLEGE FOOTBALL ’94 / MISSION CONFERENCE : 1993 / IN REVIEW

Standings

Division Overall College W L T W L T Riverside 5 0 0 7 4 0 Orange Coast 4 1 0 8 3 0 Saddleback 2 3 0 5 5 0 Rancho Santiago 2 3 0 4 5 1 Golden West 2 3 0 4 6 0 Fullerton 0 5 0 3 7 0

Highlights

Orange Coast was the dominant local team last season. The Pirates finished second in the Central Division of the Mission Conference behind Riverside but ended the season with a victory in a bowl game. The Pirates, coached by Bill Workman, beat Antelope Valley, 26-14, in the Orange County Bowl to finish 8-3. Orange Coast also was involved in the wildest game of the year, a 24-22 loss at Riverside. The Tigers, the Central Division champions, lost their first four games but won the last seven. But the Tigers’ victory over OCC had the strangest ending either coach said they had seen in years. The Pirates’ Gene Adair kicked a field goal with 21 seconds left to put the Pirates ahead, 22-21. Most of the OCC players celebrated wildly on the field after the kick and the team was penalized 15 yards. A short kickoff, a 17-yard pass play, then a field goal with four seconds left gave Riverside the improbable victory. Saddleback, which had won the 1992 J.C. Grid-Wire national championship, fell to 5-5 last season but Coach Ken Swearingen became the winningest all-time community college coach in the nation. Rancho Santiago was 4-5-1, Golden West was 4-6 and Fullerton, under first-year coach Gene Murphy, ended at 3-7. Among the standouts in the Class of 1993 were linebackers Israel Ifiani (OCC) and Scott van der Ahe (Saddleback) and quarterback Josh Nelson (Fullerton). Nelson is starting for Mississippi, Ifiani is expected to play a great deal at USC and van der Ahe signed with Iowa but has left and is a redshirt at Arizona State.