Cal Poly football matchup to watch: Chris Santini vs. San Diego’s Jonathan Petersen

Cal Poly linebacker Chris Santini was something of a wildcard coming into his senior season.

The 6-foot-1, 230-pound San Jose native was a standout special teams performer as a junior in 2015, earning all-conference honors and garnering the Mustangs’ most valuable special teams player award.

Thrust into a starting role this fall, the former Boise State transfer seemed to continually improve as the season progressed.

Santini finished the regular season as Cal Poly’s leading tackler with 93 total stops, including 10.5 tackles for lost yardage and 2.5 sacks with five quarterback hurries. He received first-team all-Big Sky recognition in a 13-team conference brimming with talented linebackers heading into Cal Poly’s first-round FCS playoff matchup Saturday against San Diego at the Mustangs’ Alex G. Spanos Stadium (4 p.m., ESPN3).

Santini led the Mustangs in tackles during the final three games of the regular season, highlighted by a career-high 16-tackle performance in a close loss at Weber State.

“When the defense plays well and holds (opponents) to 22 or 16, we struggle on the offensive side,” Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh said. “If we could put it all together, we’d probably be a lot of fun to watch on Saturday night.”

San Diego’s Jonathan Petersen brings a similarly explosive element to the Toreros’ defense.

Also listed at 6-1 and 230 pounds, Petersen lines up at defensive end in San Diego’s 4-3 defensive scheme. The fourth-year junior led the Pioneer Football League with 19 tackles for loss and ranked second in the nation with 11.5 sacks in 10 games.

Petersen is a big reason why the Toreros led the FCS in scoring defense this fall at 12.1 points per contest.

On Saturday, he’ll be lining up against a veteran Cal Poly offensive line that had three starters received all-Big Sky recognition.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Cal Poly football matchup to watch: Chris Santini vs. San Diego’s Jonathan Petersen."