Hornets win Dirty 30 title by a stinger

The Fullerton Hornets survived a defensive battle for a 16-12 win over College of San Mateo in the California state title game on Saturday afternoon in Sacramento. With the win, the Hornets edged out Iowa Western College for the 13th annual JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 national title.

It looked bleak for Fullerton in the final minutes as they were trailing 12-9 and needing to make a stand on defense. The Hornets managed to force a punt in the final minute, and returned it all the way to the one yard line as Justin Manyweather weaved through tacklers for a 59-yard return. Fullerton then punched it in to the end zone on the first play from scrimmage when Gerald Hulett leaped over the goal line to give the Hornets the lead with 47 seconds remaining. For Fullerton, it was their 19th straight win and second straight national title after sharing the Dirty 30 title with Garden City College (KS) last fall.

Fullerton becomes the third program to either win or share back-to-back titles as Mt. San Antonio was the Dirty 30 champs in 2009-10 and East Mississippi shared the title with Butte in 2013 before winning it outright in 2014.

Fullerton edged out Iowa Western for the title this season as the IWCC Reivers had a lone blemish on their schedule against Butler College back in mid-September (19-21), finishing 11-1. Iowa Western made a ferocious finish to the season by beating a solid Northwest Mississippi squad in the Graphic Edge Bowl last weekend (36-19).

In addition to two extra wins over Iowa Western, Fullerton finished with six wins against teams in the top-25 in the final rankings. The Hornets finished with back-to-back wins against top-10 teams in beating No. 10 Riverside and No. 5 San Mateo. Conversely, Iowa Western had five wins against teams in the top-45 and three against top-20 programs, finishing with wins over No. 30 DuPage and No. 9 Northwest.

NJCAA national champion East Mississippi finished third in the final JCGridiron Dirty 30 Rankings. The Lions finished the season with a 31-28 victory over No. 4 Arizona Western. California state runner-up College of San Mateo finished fifth in the final rankings.

The rest of the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Rankings follows.

Just a reminder, the Dirty 30 Rankings do not include games against prep schools or non-affiliated programs in the team records.