Vikings Win Southern California Bowl Over Southwestern

The No. 12 Long Beach City College football team defeated the No. 18 Southwestern College Jaguars on Saturday evening 20-16 in the 2019 Southern California Bowl in the final game of the season at Veterans Memorial Stadium. This is the fifth bowl win under Head Coach Brett Peabody.

The Jaguars hit a 45-yard field goal at the start of the first quarter. Then they scored their first touchdown with two minutes left in the quarter to shut the Vikings out 10-0.

In the second quarter, Long Beach amped up their offense with a three-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Derrach West to freshman wide receiver Julian Woodard. Sophomore wide receiver Zion Bowens smashed the Vikings' second touchdown with a deep 42-yard pass from West to take the lead away from the Jaguars 13-10.

Southwestern then drove a 49-yard pass to sink their final touchdown of the game with four minutes left in the second quarter. With 1:25 left in the half, freshman punter Jakob Lemeiux punted the ball to the Jaguars endzone, where freshman defensive back Alex Brown recovered the Jaguars fumble and scored for Long Beach to extend the Vikings' lead 20-16.

In the second half of the game, Long Beach's defense ruled the gridiron and both teams remained scoreless. With less the five minutes on the clock, sophomore linebacker D'Anthony Jones had a huge interception for a 15-yard return. Then with forty-one seconds left the game, sophomore defensive end Shane Irwin ended the Jaguars offense with sack for a loss of 12-yards and the Vikings took home the 20-16 bowl win over the Jaguars.

At the conclusion of the game, freshman defensive lineman Divine Obichere earned the Most Valuable Player Award as he led the Vikings with seven tackles, had one sack for a loss of four yards, had a total of 2.5 tackles for a loss of 11 Jaguar yards. West was also named the Player of the Game as he had two touchdown passes, and totaled 125 total yards in the air.