MSJC's standout football season ends in bowl game loss

MSJC's Taylor Tosches holds on after catching a pass for the Eagles in Saturday's game. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

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The Mt. San Jacinto College football team had another tremendous season in 2022, but the Eagles came up just short of their final goal as they lost in the SCFA American Championship Bowl Saturday, 31-20, to Citrus College.

The Eagles and the Owls battled through a scoreless first quarter on Saturday as both teams’ defenses seemed to be ready from the start of the game. Citrus would score the first points of the day with 13:21 to play in the second period when they put together a 10-play, 84-yard drive to score on a 7-yard pass play and after the extra point took a 7-0 lead.

MSJC would gain back the momentum heading into halftime with their own long 11-play, 85-yard drive that was capped off by a 27-yard touchdown pass from Robert Coleman to Taylor Tosches with just 51 seconds to go before the break.

Citrus came out of the locker room and seemed to seize control of the game as they scored the next 21 points to build their lead to 28-7 with 8:50 to play in the game. The Eagles tried to make one more push as they cut the lead to 28-14 when Coleman hit Jevin Dorsey with a 4-yard TD pass, but a field goal by the Owls with 1:53 left put the game out of reach.

The Eagles did give the huge crowd one more thrill on the afternoon when Matthew Caldera returned a kickoff 95 yards for the final score of the day to make it 31-20.

The MSJC offense, which was averaging just under 40 points a game ,was held to their lowest point total of the season. Coleman did what he could as he completed 19 of 30 passes for 290 yards, and Jaylen Magee rushed for a team-best 56 yards on 10 carries. Taliq Brown had 109 receiving yards on 6 catches and Dorsey finished with a team-high 7 receptions for 78 yards.

On defense, Steven Bradshaw finished off his stellar MSJC career with a game-high 17 total tackles, including 8 solo stops. For his efforts, Bradshaw was named the game's Defensive Player of the Game. Demond Young and Nathan Ortiz both had 7 tackles for the Eagles.

MSJC finishes the season with a 9-2 record; they won their second straight American Mountain League Championship and were making their second straight appearance in the SCFA American Championship Bowl. The Eagles also were appearing in a Bowl game for the third straight season and on the field have posted a 25-6 mark in that time.

A Citrus defender can't stop Jevin Dorsey from backing into the end zone with a TD catch. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Jaylen Magee stiff-arms a defender while picking up yardage on Saturday. (Photo by Rick Rowell)