RIVERSIDE — Even one of the state’s best defenses could do little to slow Riverside City College’s offense.
Sophomore quarterback Brady Jones tossed his 40th touchdown pass of the season to set another school record as Riverside grabbed an early lead and ran away for a 62-41 victory over San Diego Mesa on Saturday in a National-Southern Conference game at Wheelock Stadium.
“We’ve put up 60-plus points and 600 yards a game the last six weeks and we’re going to break more schools records, if we haven’t already,” Craft said. “That was one of the state’s top three defenses that we just dismantled.”
Jones completed 29 of 43 pass attempts for 439 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score for Riverside (8-1, 6-0), which claims the National-Southern Conference regular season title and secures a spot in the upcoming Southern California Football Association playoffs.
“We’ve won 18 bowl games in the 14 years I’ve been here and I think we’re going to have a shot again,” Craft said.
Sophomore fullback Brandon McMaster added four short rushing touchdowns in the win, the Tigers’ seventh consecutive heading into the regular season finale at Fullerton.
“We’re scoring points at a more prolific rate than any other team in history,” Craft said. “No other team is doing what we’re doing.”
Dominic Cox had eight receptions for 157 yards and a touchdown, and Jackson Owen added six catches for 101 yards. Both produced highlight-reel grabs for RCC.
“It’s easy when I have guys like them,” Jones said. “It’s fun and they make it fun.”
After trading 3-and-out possessions to begin the game, RCC struck first with Jones leading the Tigers offense down the field before slinging it to Cox, who made an acrobatic over-the-shoulder catch just inside the right pylon for a 7-0 lead.
“Every game there’s a new highlight play by one of these receivers,” Jones said.
San Diego Mesa (7-2, 4-2) got on the scoreboard as Jax Leatherwood connected with Conor Lawler for the Olympians’ first score before dropping in a pin-point 20-yard pass to Dazure Paggett for a second touchdown in the second quarter.
“We’ve got to get off the field on third down,” Craft said. “They probably had 10 conversions on third down, and those seem to be our Achilles heel.”
Jones, who set a school single-game record with eight touchdowns against Southwestern two weeks ago, is the fastest to 40 passing touchdowns in RCC’s history, surpassing Jake Retzlaff.
The Vista Murrieta grad kept the Tigers in the lead throughout, rolling right and running it in himself to take a 28-13 lead before halftime.
Leatherwood, a bounceback transfer from Nevada, led San Diego Mesa (7-2, 4-2) on a 13-play drive culminating in a 9-yard pass to Jalil Tucker to make it a one-score game to start the second half.
Riverside offered an immediate response, scoring in less than 2 minutes as McMasters battered his way across the goal line to hold a 34-20 lead.
The big swings continued throughout the third quarter, with Aleonte Logan returning a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown for San Diego Mesa before Riverside fired back with another quick drive capped by a 7-yard touchdown run by Devyne Pearson.
“We answered every time they would answer, and in the end we took the momentum away,” Craft said.
In the fourth quarter, Jones scrambled and found Marquise Monroe in the end zone for a 48-27 lead, and McMasters added his third rushing touchdown to make it 55-34 with 8 minutes remaining.
McMasters, who has totaled three rushing touchdowns all season coming in, backed across the goal line for his fourth of the game with less than 3 minutes to play to seal the win.
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