No shake-up up top in Dirty 30

The season is four weeks old and some of the programs finally played their first legitimate game this past weekend. Teams 5-10 look a bit different after a handful of big games over the weekend.

The top four remain the same as East Mississippi, Northwest Mississippi, Lackawanna and Saddleback all breezed to victories. For No. 3 Lackawanna, it was the first real game and they put a 48-9 beat-down on Monroe.

The new No. 5 is Arizona Western after the Matadors blasted cross-state rival Eastern Arizona, 38-3. Arizona Western has beaten three decent opponents by a combined 83-22. They now have a bye before an unaffiliated game, so the schedule won’t do them any favors in the coming weeks.

Riverside City College is the new No. 6 after blasting a decent Bakersfield team, 45-7. The Tigers now have a critical matchup at No. 8 Ventura, who moved into the top-10 for the first time ever with a dominating win at Orange Coast College (34-14). The RCC/VC game should be one of the games to watch this weekend.

Could there be a new team to beat in Northern California? Santa Rosa Junior College is the highest ranked team this week at No. 7 after improving to 3-0. The Bear Cubs blasted San Joaquin Delta, 55-23, and with wins over No. 10 Butte and No. 16 Fresno City, SRJC is sitting in a great spot. Next up is a couple of trap games at Sacramento City and Sierra, who always pull off one upset a season. Late October could be their big opportunity to break through if they can get there without any blemishes.

Both the Jayhawk and Southwest Junior College Football Conferences are up for grabs. Tyler looks like the most explosive program in the SWJCFC and moves up to No. 9 after a dominating win over a solid NEO squad (65-14). They are only 1-0 but had a comfortable lead stripped away from them in week one when weather canceled the game against Kilgore. The Apaches now travel to Cisco before getting into the meat of the schedule in two weeks.

Garden City is currently the top-ranked Jayhawk team at No. 12, but things could change weekly in that conference due to the balance from top to bottom. The Broncbusters pulled off a massive win at Hutchinson this past weekend (16-14), but with only 167 yards of offense and seven first downs they are going to have to come up with something more with four straight games against solid competition on deck. Garden City has a week off before hosting No. 28 Butler on October 1. After that, they have three consecutive road games at No. 34 Coffeyville, No. 15 Iowa Western and No. 38 Dodge City.

One team making a big jump was Fullerton, who rose 11 spots to No. 22 overall after dismantling College of the Canyons, 59-14. The Hornets are averaging 48.6 points-per-game through three weeks and now get a big test at No. 19 Mt. San Antonio.

BIG GAMES THIS WEEK

#1 East Mississippi at #14 Itawamba (Thu)
#6 Riverside City at #8 Ventura
#7 Santa Rosa at #55 Sacramento City
#44 San Mateo at #10 Butte
#13 Hutchinson at #35 Highland
#34 Coffeyville at #15 Iowa Western
#25 American River at #16 Fresno City
#31 Georgia Military at #17 DuPage
#22 Fullerton at #19 Mt. San Antonio
#38 Dodge City at #28 Butler
#29 Navarro at #42 Northeastern Oklahoma A&M
#41 Jones County at #30 Copiah-Lincoln (Thu)
#48 Glendale (AZ) at #33 Mesa
#47 Chaffey at #39 Grossmont

The rest of the Dirty 30 Rankings follow. Just a reminder, the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Rankings do not recognize games against Club Teams or Prep Schools.