With five straight wins and a 3-0 conference record, the Warriors will continue divisional play Saturday as they face the Riverside Tigers at 5 p.m. in Wheelock Field.
The Tigers have shown that they have the ability to move and run the ball well, but will face an EC defense that is ranked second in the Mission Conference.
“We have had a couple of games where we’ve been bent a little bit defensively,” coach John Featherstone said. “But we haven’t completely been broken.”
Riverside has a losing record of 2-3, but is 2-1 in conference play and has obtained its wins over rivals EC is familiar with.
Riverside, like EC, beat Golden West in the final seconds with a mirror image score of 16-14, and breezed by Cerritos, EC’s toughest challenge thus far, 34-10.
“We can’t take Riverside lightly, despite them only winning two games,” center and co-captain Aaron Sapien said. “Cerritos didn’t have a good record but they presented us with a challenge in which they almost won.”
Coming off the bye week, EC will have a target on its back as it is the only undefeated team in both the American and the National Division.
“We’re a marked team and everybody is going to be gunning for us,” Featherstone said. “But I’d rather be on top, swatting people away, instead of climbing the ladder to get on top.”
Last year, the team finished third in its division (3-2), and ended the season with a 7-3 overall record.
EC will have to win five more games to ensure it wins the division.
The winner of the division is granted an automatic playoff birth, come late November.
“Everything up to this point counts, but not as much as these next five games,” Featherstone said.
Defensively, the Warriors are accomplishing their duties as they have not allowed a team to score more than 16 points in the five games they have played.
The defense is ranked second against the rush, allowing a mere 74.6 yards a game, while their passing defense is ranked third allowing 166.4 yards per game. EC has only allowed 7 touchdowns and less than 1,200 total yards.
The EC offense is ranked third, behind Saddleback and Santa Ana, and has accumulated 1,742 total yards with 13 touchdowns.
The quarterback position has been a problem for the team as the players are young and inexperience to the community college level, but as games have gone by the quarterbacks have progressed and are a focal point to EC’s undefeated record.
“Nick Emmons and Don Poole have developed into good, solid quarterbacks after five games,” Featherstone said. “They’re still learning, but progressing every week so it’s really exciting for us to be five and zero.”
