Santa Ana Plays No. 1 Palomar

Palomar is the top-ranked community college football team in Southern California, but if the Comets are to remain there they will have to beat three Orange County teams in the final three weeks of the season.

Santa Ana gets first crack at Palomar when they meet at 1 p.m. today at Santa Ana Stadium in a Mission Conference Central Division game.

Santa Ana (4-3, 1-1 in the division) is coming off a 25-23 loss to Saddleback that stopped the Dons’ four-game winning streak.

Palomar (6-1, 2-0) has the top-ranked offense in the conference, and the Dons have a powerful weapon of their own in sophomore running back Cameron King.

King has rushed for 1,047 yards in seven games, is averaging 5.8 yards a carry and has scored 11 touchdowns. He has rushed for more than 200 yards three times this season.

King will be key in keeping the ball away from Palomar’s powerful offense, led by former Servite High quarterback Greg Cicero (120 of 190 for 1,821 yards), who leads the state with 24 touchdown passes.

In other 1 p.m. games: Saddleback (3-4, 1-1) plays Fullerton (2-5, 1-1) at Cal State Fullerton and Riverside (2-5, 1-1) takes on Golden West (0-7, 0-2) at Orange Coast.

Long Beach (3-4, 0-2) at Orange Coast (3-4, 1-1), 7 p.m.--Quarterback Jared Flint has passed for 1,760 yards and 13 touchdowns. Flint needs 121 yards to break the OCC all-time passing yardage mark of 3,425, which was set by Alvin White (1971-72).