AWC to Host National Title Game
El Toro Bowl becomes NJCAA National Championship Game
Top-ranked AWC to host #2 East Mississippi CC in battle of undefeated teams December 3rd in Yuma
Yuma, Arizona – November 15, 2011 – Arizona Western College, the Caballeros de Yuma and the Matador Athletic Association are proud to announce that the 2011 El Toro Bowl-presented by Time Warner Cable-has officially become the national championship football game for the National Junior College Athletic Association. The game will feature the top two teams in the NJCAA Final Regular Season Football Poll: the top-ranked Arizona Western College Matadors and the 2nd-ranked East Mississippi Community College Lions. The announcement comes just 18 days before the two teams will take the field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Yuma for the event.
For the top-ranked Matadors, it means that after the most successful regular season in the program’s history, they will be able to fulfill the dream that they had when the idea to bring the bowl game back was hatched some 18 months ago: to bring the El Toro Bowl and their national championship hopes together. As the Matadors gradually climbed from their preseason national ranking of 5th, they quietly wondered if they could possibly host the title game. After stalling at #2 for five consecutive weeks, the Matadors took advantage of a loss by former #1 Blinn College two weeks ago with impressive back-to-back road victories to close out the regular season with an 11-0 overall record. The 11 wins is the most by a team in AWC Football history. They also finished with a perfect 8-0 record in Western States Football League play, which earned them their 3rd consecutive WSFL title. The 2011 Matadors also hope that the events of El Toro Bowl Week leading up to the game-most notably the official induction of Butcher and AWC’s last national championship football team into both the NJCAA and Arizona Western College Halls of Fame-will provide them the inspiration to repeat the feat and win the national title.
For the Lions, it means that it will take another victory over the only bowl opponent they’ve faced in the last 50 years to earn their first national title. For the second time in three seasons, the Lions will face AWC on the heels of clinching the Mississippi Association of Community & Junior Colleges title with a win over their archrivals from Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Lions trailed the Bulldogs by 10 points midway through the 3rd quarter-only to run off 35 unanswered points to earn their 2nd MACJC Championship. The win actually gave the Lions an automatic bid for the Mississippi Bowl, but the Lions decided to bypass that bid to get the chance to win a national title.
Saturday’s win was the 11th of the season, which tied a Lions’ single-season record for wins in a season that they set two years with their Mississippi Bowl win over the Matadors.
The 2011 El Toro Bowl-presented by Time Warner Cable-will be played at 2:30PM on Saturday afternoon, December 3rd, at ‘The Vet’, which is just ¼ mile west of the AWC campus on 24th Street near Araby Road in Yuma. Only a limited number of $12 reserved seats ($14 on the day of the game) remain for the contest, as well as $8 for general admission seats ($10 on game day). Fans can purchase tickets at the Caballeros de Yuma Office (180 First Street in Yuma (in the old Yuma City Hall building), the AWC Athletics Office (the southwest corner of the gymnasium building on the AWC campus), or the AWC Foundation Office (281 West 24th Street in Century Plaza just east of 4th Avenue). Tickets are also still available for the 2011 El Toro Bowl Hall of Fame Banquet-presented by Alexander Auto Center-on November 30th; and for the El Toro Bowl Pre-Bowl Banquet-presented by Sodexo-on Friday, December 1st. Tickets for each event are $25 apiece, and both events will be held at the Schoening Conference Center at the 3C Building on the AWC main campus (2020 South Avenue 8E in Yuma). For ticket information, a rundown of game-day events, and a full schedule of the week’s activities, fans can log on to the bowl’s official website: www.eltorobowl.com, Proceeds from the bowl game and its related events will benefit several areas, including scholarships at Arizona Western College, as well as allow the Caballeros de Yuma to continue to provide and attract events that positively impact the quality of life in the Yuma community
