VENTURA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Football team lost Saturday at Ventura in a high-scoring affair, 56-25. The Vaqueros fell to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
Ventura's offense has proven to be prolific so far this season, scoring 30+ points in every game and 65 as their single game season high. Against SBCC, they had 734 yards of total offense.
SBCC was dealing with some injuries and illnesses running through their locker room, and will look to get healthy heading into a matchup with Antelope Valley after an extended break.
"Any time you play a potent offense, you can't give them second chances," head coach Craig Moropoulos said. "We'll learn from it going into the bye week."
On the first drive of the game, the SBCC defense forced a 3rd-and-3 in Ventura territory, but could not get off the field. Ventura's drive continued down to a 4th-and-goal, where they scored on a 3-yard touchdown pass.
The Vaqueros then were putting together a solid drive of their own, converting two 3rd downs before not converting a third on the Ventura 16. A missed field goal finished the drive without any points.
Six plays later, a 48-yard touchdown pass increased Ventura's lead to 14-0.
Five plays later, the Vaqueros punched back as Jake Foye rushed for a 13-yard touchdown in what was quickly looking like a potential shootout, the score now 14-7 still in the first quarter.
On Ventura's next drive, a pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-5 in Ventura territory extended the drive, and Ventura rolled the rest of the way to another touchdown. The Vaqueros were forced to punt on their next drive, and three plays later, Ventura rushed for a 40-yard touchdown.
Quickly down 28-7, the Vaqueros looked to answer back. Driving down the field and once again converting multiple 3rd downs, the drive came up empty after an interception on the Ventura 15.
Four plays later, another Ventura touchdown extended their lead to 35-7. The talented Ventura offense had scored a touchdown on each of their first five possessions.
The Vaqueros defense showed some fight at the end of the half, intercepting a pass on the second play of Ventura's next drive. With a little more than a minute left, the offense drove down to the Ventura 20, but another missed field goal led them into halftime down 35-7.
To begin the second half, each team traded touchdowns for the first four total drives. Shaun Smith threw a 5-yard a touchdown pass to Damare Ward to decrease the deficit to 35-13 before a Ventura rushing touchdown made it 42-13.
Cameron Woolsey then caught Smith's next touchdown pass, a 27-yarder. A two-point conversion failed, keeping the score 42-19.
The next play after the kickoff, Ventura completed a 72-yard touchdown pass, making it a 49-19 game. Less than halfway into the third quarter, and 4 touchdown drives had already occurred.
Santa Barbara kept trying to get back into the game, but failed to punch in a 4th-and-goal, keeping it a 30-point game. Ventura's next drive took more than six minutes off the clock, and after three 3rd-down conversions, they scored again to extend their lead to 56-19 with 13 minutes remaining.
The Vaqueros did not go down without competing, though, as their last score came on a 99-yard interception return touchdown by Dquan McClennon on a Ventura 3rd-and-goal. The final score would be 56-25.
It was the second week of Will Doherty and Shaun Smith sharing time at quarterback, a dynamic that Moropoulos says will continue. The duo combined to throw 31 for 49 for 327 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.
"The completion percentage was really good, much better than last week. Even in a game like this, you got to take away some positives," Moropoulos said.
Jake Foye ran hard for 73 yards and a touchdown to lead the team. Cameron Woolsey had received a lot of the rushing workload throughout the season, but was the leading pass-catcher on Saturday with 9 receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown.
On getting the running backs more involved in the passing game, Moropoulos offered, "It shows the quarterbacks are doing a good job utilizing them in the concepts. That's the progression of our quarterbacks more than anything else."
Moropoulos concluded by looking ahead to the bye week and getting players back healthy: "[The bye week] is good for everybody. A lot of teams are getting healthy—we're looking forward to hopefully getting [tight end] Elian Sundquist and a couple defensive guys back."
The Vaqueros will be off this weekend before heading to Antelope Valley for a conference matchup on October 14 at 2:00 PM.
