A decorum violation was levied against the Mendocino College football team for a brawl on Halloween night against San Jose City College, forcing Mendocino to forfeit its game last Saturday versus Contra Costa College.

“It’s a free ‘W,’ you feel me?” quarterback Cameron Burston said. “If we win our next game this Saturday then we get to play in a bowl game.”

The Comets technically won 1-0, per the NCAA forfeit guidelines, because Mendocino violated personal misconduct rules.

CCC lost its last game to Shasta College 34-21, snapping a 15-game winning streak. The forfeit allows some players to sit back, reflect and build more motivation for the end of the season.

Burston said Mendocino’s decision to fight is entirely on its players and they have to suffer the consequences.

Plus he said the loss last week has not changed the way he, or his teammates, will approach the season finale at San Jose (2-7 overall, 2-3 in the Pac 7 Conference) this Saturday at 3 p.m.

“We’ll be ready,” he said. “We win and we’re in.”

It has become a mantra of sorts because Burston says the entire team feels that way and several players agreed that while the loss versus Shasta feels “pretty foreign,” the ultimate goal is still the same.

Defensive back Joshua Jackson said the team will practice this week the same, and nothing will change the fact that CCC is still in first place in the Pacific 7 Conference.

“All we have to do is what we have been doing all year,” Jackson said. “Honestly, it’s the mental part of the game that we have now as an advantage going into San Jose because we’ve had basically two weeks to prepare for them.”

The layoff also comes at a time when coach Alonzo Carter is dealing with something that he is not familiar with since his team has not lost since Sept. 13, 2014.

The effects of the brawl might have good implications, or could go wrong for a Comet team looking to reach its fourth consecutive bowl game.

Defensive back Billy-Nicoe Hurst said, “Shasta was a tough one, but we won’t make mental mistakes like Mendocino and leave the box during an altercation on the football field. We’re better than them when it comes to that.”

The Comets enter the San Jose game with an 8-1 overall record, 4-1 in the Pac 7 Conference.