SANTA ANA, Calif. - Santa Ana College Football clinched its first bowl game berth since 2017 and hosted for the first time since 2012 as it welcomed the Pasadena City Lancers (9-2) for the Southern California Bowl on Saturday, November 27th.
The teams put on a show in a very evenly matched battle but at the end of the night the Dons (7-4) were narrowly edged out by the Lancers, falling by a score of 28-21.
In the first quarter, both defenses made big plays as the game started with two straight stops.
But the Dons would not be denied for long as Ceasar Ayala connected with Kristian Constantine on a 32 yard go-route to give Santa Ana a 7-0 lead with 4:10 left in the quarter.
The didn't touchdown did not seem to phase the Lancers as they responded with a 57 yard touchdown drive to make it a 7-7 game on the very next possession.
Next, the Santa Ana offense marched down the field on an 11 play drive until being stopped on a third down at the three yard line. The Dons elected to go for it on fourth down in an attempt to put as many points up as possible but things changed quickly as PCC's Jordan Monroe picked off a pass and returned it 97 yards to give the Lancers their first lead of the game.
With all the momentum shifting in favor of Pasadena, the Dons did not panic and instead put together another impressive drive.
Following a 35 yard run by Gary Ferman to jumpstart the possession, Santa Ana chipped away until scoring on a 26 yard pass from Ayala to Tyler Shimomura to even the score once again.
Santa Ana's defense came up with a critical stop on the next drive to set the offense up for back to back scoring drives as the Dons used another long drive to put up seven more points with Kyran Hayes scoring on a 14 yard pass to put SAC up 21-14, which would be the score at the half.
At the break, both defenses made some good adjustments to keep the score knotted until the fourth quarter.
Pasadena City eventually broke through to tie the score at 21-21 with a 28 yard run at the 8:59 mark in the final period.
Just a few minutes later, the Lancers would go up for good after a broken play led to a 95 yard passing touchdown, making the score 28-21.
The Dons had a couple more possessions left but just could not manage to get into the endzone.
Santa Ana would name linebacker EJ Gowdy as it's player of the game as he posted five tackles including three for losses and a big sack. Another impressive performance came from running back Gary Ferman, as he had one of his best games of the season with 152 yards on 17 carries.
The Lancers linebacker Jordan Monroe was named their player of the game while quarterback Kade Wentz earned MVP honors.