As the clock struck zeros in the first half, the Riverside City College football team walked off the field dejected. A stunned Wheelock Stadium sat in silence Nov. 30.
After a regular season that saw the No. 2 Tigers go 9-1 and put up historic numbers on offense, everything had gone wrong in the first 30 minutes of their first round of the Southern California Football Association playoff game. Bad secondary, rare interceptions, penalties, and special teams all lead to No. 8 San Diego Mesa leading 27-0 at halftime. The Tigers’ biggest deficit all season.
Mesa, who the Tigers had defeated just three weeks prior 62-41, dominated the first half of the game, led by freshman quarterback Jax Leatherwood. The towering 6’8 quarterback picked apart the Riverside defense with two touchdowns through the air and another on the ground.
“We have two all-league defensive ends screaming off the edge,” Tigers head coach Tom Craft said. “We needed to get more pressure up the middle so he couldn’t scramble or step up and find somebody.”
“A lot of our issues came in and secondary and figuring out who was covering who,” Tigers defensive lineman Esaia Bogar said.
Then as the second half began the improbable happened. The Tigers would score 37 unanswered points in a wild display of resilience to come back and defeat Mesa 37-30.
Craft remained undeterred heading into the half, relying on his experiences in these moments in big games before.
“We’ve had games like this in the past couple of years,” he said. “We knew we were capable of a comeback because of our no-huddle offense and a sense of urgency.”
A sense of urgency was found in defensive line and strength and conditioning coach Pene Talamaivao who rallied the offense around him just before the second half and delivered a message.
“All the teams at Riverside are rooted in hard work and love for each other,” Talamaivao said. “There was no fancy speech, all I did was remind them why they’re here, and that’s for each other.”
Some life was finally found in the Tigers with less than 22 minutes to go in the game Brandon McMasters punched in a one-yard run for what would be his first of three touchdowns and the Tigers’ first points.
After a tough start from redshirt sophomore quarterback Brady Jones the National Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year that saw him throw two interceptions – his first since Sept. 28 – the Murrieta native began to coordinate the Riverside comeback.
“It wasn’t my best performance, I know that, and I’ll take that,” Jones said. “I had to get the ball to the guys that I know are going to work for me. These guys picked me up by making big plays for me.”
After another touchdown and a field goal from the Tigers, the momentum would be halted. As the final nail was seemingly put in the coffin for Riverside as Jones fumbled inside the 30-yard line and Mesa recovered with nearly 10 minutes to go in the game.
The Tiger’s defense however would mount a turnover on downs and Jones would find his top receiver freshman Dominic Cox for a 49-yard touchdown. After a questionable two-point conversion attempt from Riverside was no good the Tigers’ defense stepped up yet again and forced Mesa to punt.
“Coach gave us a message that we have an identity, and we can’t get too far away from it,” Bogar said. “That talk gave us the confidence to pull through. We all realized at half that this might be the last time we all play with each other, and everyone locked down on their stuff because of that.”
Jones would complete six passes and McMasters would rush in his third touchdown to finally knot the game up at 30 a piece.
“I had no choice (but to keep throwing) it was either that or I was hanging up the cleats here,” Jones said. “I had to keep looking ahead and preparing ahead.”
Another three-and-out from Mesa set the scene for the Tigers to finish the improbable comeback as they took the field, with 40 seconds left and two timeouts with freshman running back Marquis Monroe in the backfield.
“They were playing a Tampa defensive look all game and then they came out with something else,” Craft said. “We had to have our homerun guy in Marquis in there.”
Monroe would deliver the long ball on his feet as he evaded defenders and rushed inside the three-yard line. Sophomore running back Devyne Pearson sealed the deal and gave Riverside their first lead of the game by running in for the touchdown.
“It was more of a mental game this week,” Craft said. “We didn’t really talk to them at halftime, I had a few choice words with them, and they came out and got it together.”
Freshman defensive back Ashaad Chapman sealed the deal with an interception as time expired to give the Tigers a 37-30 victory.
“It was magical,” Talamaivao said.
The pressure grows as Riverside will head out to meet undefeated No. 1 Mt. San Antonio College in the SCFA championship Dec. 7.
“We got to show up every day in practice and grind it out because it could be our last practice,” Jones said. “The pressure? We love it.”
