JUNIOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMEDAY
Playoff Edition
GAME: (12) Navarro Bulldogs (5-3) at (7) TVCC Cardinals (7-2)
DATE: Saturday, November 11
KICKOFF: 1 pm CST
VENUE: Bruce Field, Athens, Tx
GAMEDAY WEATHER: Mostly cloudy skies with high temperatures near 57 degrees are expected. A 30 percent chance of rain showers is forecast. North-to-northwest winds will blow 6-10 mph during the contest. Humidity of 86 percent with a 51 dewpoint will be prevalent.
LIVESTREAM LINK: The Cardinal Sports Network will livestream the game, with Benny Rogers, Joey Snowden and Marcus Dowell handling coverage online.
PLAYOFF: The top four teams during the Southwest Junior College Football Conference regular season pair up 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs 3 for semifinal playoffs. Winner of the 2-3 game between TVCC and Navarro advances to the SWJCFC Championship next week against the winner of the 1-4 matchup between Kilgore and NMMI. The championship game will be played at the home field of the highest remaining seed.
THE SERIES: The Navarro-TVCC rivalry renews for the 104th time. Navarro leads 57-44-2, but the Cardinals won the last meeting, 41-24, ar Bruce Field on October 21. TVCC will be seeking its tiird straight victory and second in a row on its home turf.
WE MEET AGAIN: Dating back to the SWJCFC's first season in 1996, the Navarro-TVCC rivalry extended itself into post-season. The Bulldogs and Cardinals will clash for the 11th time in SWJCFC playoff history, with the last four in Athens ('13, '17, '19, and '23). The teams have met in eight semifinals and three championship games ('99, '10, '13).
SO, WILL HISTORY REPEAT? The 2023 SWJCFC playoffs begin with the same paiirings at the same venues as 2019. In that season, the league ended with third-seed Navarro's 36-35 championship win at Tiger Stadium over fourth-seeded NMMI. Three times in SWJCFC playoff history, a 3-4 championship-game matchupevolved – and Navarro was involved in all of them (1998, 2015, 2019).
NAVARRO LAST WEEK: Dane Jentsch accounted for 314 yards, ran for two touchdowns and passed more two more as the Bulldogs erased a three-point deficit and rallied with 20 in the second half for a 34-24 win. Jentsch and the Bulldog offense managed 82 offensive plays for 455 yards to eliminate the Apaches from post-season. Jentsch scored on runs of 3 and 11 yards and threw scoring passes of 38 yards to Jaxxon Warren and 39 to Braylon Finney.
TVCC LAST WEEK: The Cardinals secured an easy 41-7 homecoming win over Northeastern Oklahoma A&M as quarterbacks Darian Peace and Matthew Turner each threw TD passes and powered the Cardinals' 73-play, 537=yard offensive. Fifteen different receivers caught 29 passes totalling 441 yards.
KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH: Navarro – QB Dane Jentsch (126-210-1475-8 passing and 107-584-10 rushing), A-P D'Tyrian McCoy (48-214-2), Ath Bryan Spotwood (38-462-1), LBs Jordan Smith (8.6 tackles per game, 2 sacks, 6 TFL, 1 FR, 1 INT), Eddy Toussom (5.8 tackles per game, 7 sacks, 12 TFLs, 1 FR), DB Ty Marsh (5.3 tackles per game, 6 TFL, 2 FF, INT); Breylon Charles (4.0 tackles per game and 7 sacks)…… TVCC –Darion Peace (122-205-1830-11 passing); Matt Duncan (38-60-639-4 passing); Quincy Thompson (92-511-3 rushing), Hymond Drinkard (65-452-6 rushing and 12-283-3 receiving); Rayshawn Glover (21-369-4 receiving(; McCoy Casey (9.0 tackles, 4 sacks, 11 TFL, FF, FR, INT); Kobe Kendrick (7.9 tackles, 2 sacks, 5 TFL); Joe Sniffin (7.8 tackles, 4 sacks, 6 TFL, 2 INT).
SWJCFC SEMIFINAL 2 – New Mexico Military (5-4) plays third-ranked, top-seeded Kilgore (7-1) at 3 pm Saturday at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium in Kilgore.
