Gauchos take on Griffins on GSN

The Saddleback football team will resume its season on Saturday for Homecoming when it hosts Grossmont College.  The game can also be viewed via streaming video on the Gaucho Sports Network. 

The Saddleback football team welcomes Grossmont College to town for Homecoming while riding a four-game winning streak.  After opening the season with two losses, the Gauchos have ripped off consecutive wins against El Camino (42-17), Palomar (30-13), Santa Ana (37-14) and Canyons (19-3) in what is their longest winning streak since the 2012 campaign. 

Grossmont comes in at 2-4 overall and has lost four straight games after dominating wins over Southwestern (52-10) and Pasadena City (51-0) to start the season.  The Griffin troubles started in week three when they nearly upset Riverside City College in a narrow loss (29-31) and continued with losses to Golden West (7-17), Palomar (24-43) and Mt. San Antonio (28-45).

Saddleback has dominated the lifetime series, entering Saturday night's matchup with a 16-6-1 advantage over the Griffins.   Last season, however, it was Grossmont that walked away with the win when they defeated the Gauchos 41-27 in El Cajon.  In that game, Saddleback turned the ball over seven times while allowing 520 yards to the Griffins. 

The four-game winning streak has Saddleback moving up in the polls as the Gauchos are now ranked #26 in the nation in the latest JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Rankings.  Grossmont is currently out of the rankings but spent a few weeks as one of the teams on the bubble.

Saddleback has run a balanced attack in 2015 and it has paid dividends in recent weeks.  The Gauchos are ranked #17 in the state in total offense and #13 in rush offense.  Conversely, Grossmont comes in at #22 in the state in total defense, ranking #21 in passing defense.   

The Gauchos are led by quarterback Johnny Stanton, who may or may not play this week after leaving last week's game with an injury.  Stanton leads the team in both passing and rushing, accounting for 67% of the Gaucho offense.  In his absence last week, Jacob Gibson played admirably when he came in to finish 10-for-18 for 106 yards and two touchdowns, also rushing for 31 yards on the ground. 

Saddleback's running game has had a number of different leaders, including Stanton, Matt Brock, Myron Buchanan and Jojo Binda.  The fearsome foursome has averaged 4.3 yards-per-carry during the season while losing just three fumbles. 

Saddleback receiving corps has seven different players with double-digit receptions, led by sophomore Zach Davis.  The native Oregonian has 29 catches for 356 yards while local product Dominic Collins (El Toro) has accounted for the big play, averaging 16.6 yards-per-catch while scoring four touchdowns. 

Grossmont has been impressive in the running game as Thomas McDonald and Nehemiah Brooks have combined to average 6.9 yards-per-carry on the ground.   The passing game, however, has struggled at times, throwing 11 touchdowns with seven interceptions.   A total of 18 different receivers have caught balls for the receiving crew, but only four have managed double-digit receptions for the year led by Sergio Bailey (24) and Christian Brooks (23).

The stream of the game will start on the Gaucho Sports Network at approximately 5:55 PM for a charge of $9.95.  All proceeds from the broadcast go directly back into athletics to help promote the athletes and teams. 

Click HERE to watch the game.