Earning its second bowl berth in three seasons, the Ventura College football team (7-3) will play Golden West (6-4) in the Orange County Bowl.

Kickoff at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa is Saturday night at 5.

"It's a huge accomplishment for these guys," said Ventura coach Jon Mack. "We're excited. It's a great reward for a great season."

The Pirates were proud of a solid third-place finish in the difficult Northern Conference and were back to work Sunday, 12 hours after beating rival Moorpark in consecutive seasons for the first time in 23 years.

"We're flexing," said Mack. "We lost three games to three 9-1 teams."

All three of Ventura's losses came against Top 5 seeds in the Southern California regional playoffs. The Pirates finished tied for No. 9 in the final Southern California coaches' poll.

Golden West finished 6-1 in the American Division's Mountain Conference. It was kept out of the playoffs by a 35-32 loss to Los Angeles Harbor on Sept. 26.

The postseason pairings are No. 8 Los Angeles Pierce (7-3) at No. 1 Mount San Antonio (9-1), No. 5 Hancock (9-1) at No. 4 Bakersfield (9-1), No. 7 L.A. Harbor (9-1) at No. 2 Fullerton (9-1) and No. 6 Palomar (8-2) at No. 3 Cerritos (9-1).

The Southern California champion advances to play the winner of the Nov. 21 Northern California title game between San Mateo (9-1) and Reedley (6-4) in the Dec. 12 state championship game.

The postseason structure put in place during the Southern California Football Association's creation in 2008 includes berths for the three Northern Division conference champions (Mount SAC, Fullerton and Bakersfield), three Northern Division conference runners up (Cerritos, Hancock and Palomar) and the two conference champions from the lesser American Division (L.A. Harbor and L.A. Pierce).

In the other two non-playoff bowl, Saddleback (8-2) will play College of the Canyons (6-4) in the Western State Bowl and El Camino (8-2) will play Grossmont (7-3) in the Beach Bowl.

Making its first bowl appearance in eight years, Ventura scored 15 points during a three-minute span in the fourth quarter to upend host Palomar, 39-35, and confirm a 8-3 season in the 2007 Southern California Bowl.

Ventura College football coach Jon Mack may take a different path this weekend.

After VC had driven the length of the field with 69 seconds to play last Saturday, Mack decided to attempt a game-winning, two-point conversion instead of forcing overtime following Antavius Sims' 9-yard scoring strike to Nick Karam with nine seconds to play in the Pirates' 36-35 loss to Cerritos.

Mack said this week that he had no regrets about going for the win, but hinted that he may not make the same choice if a similar option were presented this weekend.

"We had a chance to win it right there and we wanted to get it done," said Mack.

"If it was a conference game it might have been different. Every game is critical now."

Sims' conversion run was stopped short.

"There were a few options in it," said Mack. "It was no one's fault. We just we wish we had another shot at it."

Ventura sophomore defensive back Travaun Nixon, who had three interceptions Saturday, said he supported Mack's decision.

"I was cool with it," said Nixon, who leads the state with six interceptions in four games.
"I thought we were going to make it. Everyone would have loved it if we made it. I believe in our offense."

Down seven points with 81 yards to go and 1:09 to play, the Ventura College drove the length of the football field against visiting Cerritos College Saturday night at the VC Sportsplex.

Only to come up short.

Rather than use his record-setting kicker to force overtime, Ventura coach Jon Mack elected to attempt the game-winning two-point conversion after quarterback Antavius Sims found receiver Nick Karam for a 9-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds to play.

Ventura (3-1) fell despite kicker Tyler Stampler setting a school record by converting five field goals on five attempts and All-State cornerback Travaun Nixon intercepting three passes in the first 18 minutes, returning one 27 yards for a touchdown.

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Here's my preview of today's Cerritos-Ventura and Moorpark-Santa Ana football games.

The No. 14 Ventura College and No. 6 Cerritos College football teams have combined to outscore their opponents 259-50 through the first three weeks of the community college football season.

But their six opponents are a combined 1-17.

That one win? Santa Barbara City's shocking upset of Canyons.

VC and Cerritos meet Saturday night at the VC Sportsplex.

After opening 3-0 in non-conference play, the Ventura College football team is gearing up for the first big test of its schedule Saturday night against 3-0 Cerritos, which has outscored its three opponents 168-32.

"We'll find out how good we are Saturday," said Ventura coach Jon Mack. "Cerritos is very good."

Ventura's 2008 season came off the rails following controversial 18-13 loss at Cerritos, which snapped the Pirates' 10-game winning streak and began a four-game losing streak.

"It's just another game on the schedule that we certainly want to win," said Mack. There's nobody I don't want to beat."

Ventura is hoping for the return of sophomore running back Gabriel Bostic, who has been unavailable after rushing for the opening touchdown in the VC Sportsplex because of a leg injury.

The Ventura College football team is facing a test Saturday at the VC Sportsplex. Cerritos is 3-0 as well, coming off a 47-10 beating of local rival Long Beach City.

Both teams must remember what happened the last time these two teams played.

The Ventura College softball team was swept out of the Southern California regional playoffs over the weekend by No. 2 and South Coast Conference champion Cerritos, 8-4 and 10-0.

Ventura center fielder Sabrina Gonzalez continued her stellar season, going 2 for 4 with a double in the first game. Shelbi Stallings added two hits, including a solo home run, and Shiane Sharp had a two RBI single.

Ventura was shut out, 10-0, in five innings in Game 2. Cerritos pitcher Hillary Perez-Ashley tossed a three-hitter.

The Western State Conference champion Moorpark College softball team was seeded No. 13 in the Southern California regional playoffs Friday evening.

The No. 13 Raiders (31-12) will visit No. 5 Fullerton (30-8), runner-up to Cypress in the powerful Orange Empire Conferece, next weekend in a first-round Best-of-3 series. No. 15 Ventura (25-18) will visit No. 2 Cerritos (35-9-1), champion of the South Coast Conference.

The first game will be Saturday, May 2 with the second and possible third games following the next day.