By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Football team beat Moorpark at home Saturday night in a wild affair, 30-22. The Vaqueros improved to 4-5 with one last home game next weekend against Bakersfield.
"I'm never sad after a win," head coach Craig Moropoulos said, when asked if he was 'happy' with the win. "I'm proud of a lot of our guys."
The game started with some foreshadowing, as Moorpark went three-and-out on all pass plays, marred by two offensive penalties. Frederick Hunter blocked Moorpark's punt and SBCC was in business right away, taking over on Moorpark's 25-yard-line.
Jake Foye set the tone, running hard for 18 yards in 3 plays. On 2nd-and-goal, a great play design and play action fake from Will Doherty allowed Kayden Chan to find space in the flat. The pair would link up for the first time of the night on a 7-yard touchdown—Vaqueros up 7-0.
Moorpark's next drive consisted of 12 offensive plays, the first one being a run and the remaining 11 being pass plays. After working their way down to the Vaquero 8, a missed field goal gave SBCC the ball back, still with a 7-0 advantage.
After an SBCC punt, Frederick Hunter was again involved in a takeaway, this time recovering a Moorpark fumble and giving the Vaqueros the ball back near midfield. SBCC was forced to punt again, but this time Matt Croteau recovered another Moorpark fumble at the Moorpark 14 on the ensuing drive.
The dynamic Shaun Smith came into the game, but a short pass on 4th-and-3 resulted in a completion to Kayden Chan but a tackle for loss, leading to zero points after both turnovers. That ended the first quarter still at 7-0 SBCC.
Moorpark would again go scoreless on their next drive after a penalty negated a touchdown, but the Vaqueros would then lose a fumble inside Moorpark's 30. Moorpark marched down the field on 6 plays—all in the air—to tie the score at 7 apiece. The touchdown, though, came on a one-handed catch that might have hit the ground, causing some protest from the Vaqueros secondary. However, it stood, and to this point, it felt like SBCC was dominating the flow of the game but nonetheless found themselves tied with 10 minutes left in the half.
SBCC and Moorpark traded three-and-outs on their next possessions, but Kayden Chan showed his elusiveness on a 70-yard punt return touchdown, giving the Vaqueros a 14-7 lead. It was already Chan's second touchdown of the night, and his second 70-plus return touchdown in consecutive weeks.
"Whether it's a punt return, fly sweep, or whatever—a deep pass, you've just got to put it in his vicinity and he'll make a play," Moropoulos said of Chan. "He's just a ballplayer."
The electricity was short-lived, unfortunately, as the Vaqueros then allowed a 61-yard touchdown to Moorpark's leading receiver Noah Cronquist. SBCC played Cover 0, and after catching a 15-yard pass in the middle of the field, Cronquist broke free for the remaining 40-some yards to score.
Neither offense could score the remainder of the half, and the teams went into the break deadlocked at 14-14.
Out of halftime, SBCC began with the ball but once again punted. The Vaqueros defense and secondary continued to stall Moorpark's extremely heavy passing attack, forcing a punt themselves.
A balanced attack of rushing and passing brought Santa Barbara to 3rd-and-goal at the 8. Will Doherty found Kayden Chan in the flat again, who made another incredibly athletic play to just barely get to the pylon and score, now his third touchdown of the game. 21-14 Vaqueros.
The Vaqueros got the ball back after another defensive stop and stepped on the gas. Doherty threw a dot up the seam to Easton Clements—another one of SBCC's plethora of talented receivers—and he ran the rest of the way to a 55-yard touchdown, reminiscent of Moorpark's prior score. Now with a two-score lead, SBCC led 28-14 towards the end of the third quarter.
On Moorpark's next drive, they were again forced to punt on 4th-and-10, but a few Vaqueros could not get off the field in time, thus forcing a penalty of too many men on the field. At the conclusion of the play, SBCC was also called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, meaning Moorpark not only kept possession but now had a 1st down.
SBCC's defense made sure Moorpark could not take advantage, though, with Matt Croteau recovering another fumble well inside Moorpark territory.
Starting with 1st-and-goal on the 2, SBCC failed to punch it in, running a screen/hitch to Kayden Chan with blockers in front of him on 4th down. He came within a yard of his fourth touchdown of the night, but the score remained 28-14 towards the beginning of the fourth quarter.
The field position ended up helping the Vaqueros, as Moorpark's shaky punt coverage team was forced to punt from their own 1-yard-line. Moorpark's punter had to rush his punt to get it off, and kicked it off of his upback's helmet. The ball flew high into the air, and Moorpark's punter caught it behind the back line of the endzone for a safety. Now it was 30-14 SBCC, with SBCC receiving the kickoff after the safety, with 11:20 remaining.
The play was so contrasting from the Vaqueros' incredibly solid special teams unit all season, and gave Vaqueros fans even more reason to be thankful for how attentive the SBCC coaching staff is to that phase of the game.
"Give Special Teams Coordinator Rob Adan a lot of credit," Moropoulos said when asked about his special teams unit. "He puts our guys in great positions to be successful."
Moropoulos also praised tight end Ryan Gillum, who stepped up for longsnapping duties after the Vaqueros' top three options at the position went down with injuries. The fourth longsnapper! Not an easily replaceable position. The versatile Gillum also caught a 13-yard first down reception on the Vaqueros' third touchdown drive.
"Every snap was perfect," Moropoulos said proudly.
Out of the safety kickoff, now up 16 points, SBCC only bled 3 minutes off the clock and had to punt. Moorpark scored 11 plays later on a desperation heave on 4th-and-goal; because most of the series was passing plays, they took less than 4 minutes off the clock themselves. A successful two-point conversion made it a one possession game at 30-22 SBCC.
2 plays later, on 3rd-and-3, Will Doherty made his only blaring mistake of the night, throwing an interception on a pass up the middle. Moorpark regained possession with 3:01 left around midfield.
Thanks to a defensive holding and questionable late hit penalty, Moorpark quickly had the ball on SBCC's 20. A Moorpark holding penalty, sack, and incomplete pass made it 3rd-and-27 at SBCC's 37. Ben Antoine all but sealed the game with an interception, returning it 90 yards for a touchdown, but multiple Vaqueros penalties—after the interception—erased the exclamation point.
Jake Foye ran out the clock, fighting his way for two first downs as SBCC walked off the field victorious, 30-22. The chaotic game ended well after 9:00 PM.
With a lot to unpack from this game, Jake Foye deserves a lot of credit.
"Fantastic," Moropoulos said, asked about how nice it was to see Foye break out for 153 yards rushing. "I'm very proud of him. He's kind of the unsung guy—we've gone through three running backs [due to injuries] since the start of the season. … He's played some high-level football. He played at Rancho Santa Margarita [in high school, against big-name schools like Mater Dei, Servite, St. John Bosco, among others], give him some props."
The yardage on the ground meant less work throwing for Will Doherty, but the freshman still amassed 195 yards in the air and 3 touchdowns. More importantly, he looked like a leader of the offense and seemed in control the whole game.
"I'm really proud of him and his development, he really showed his maturity tonight," Moropoulos said.
The balanced offense helped protect the defense, Moropoulos said, who only got truly beat on the second of the three touchdowns allowed. Moorpark's incredibly heavy air attack was a polar opposite to last week's opponent in Hancock, who consistently ran the ball. The Vaqueros "allowed" negative 19 yards rushing this week.
"They're going to get their yards [passing]," Moropoulos said, referencing Moorpark's 371 yards in the air. "Getting [cornerback] Ajani Cuevas-Gillis back was a big help."
The best player on the field was Kayden Chan, who had 312 all-purpose yards and 3 total touchdowns—2 receiving and the long punt return touchdown. He finsihed 4 yards shy of the SBCC single game record, Trayone Harris' 316 all-purpose yards in 2008. Chan led all Vaqueros receivers with 9 catches while Easton Clements led in yardage with 89.
Defensively, Matt Croteau and Ajani Cuevas-Gillis led the team with 7 total tackles, while Benji Rodriguez and Caleb McNeill-Tyler caused fits for the Moorpark offensive line, tallying 6 tackles apiece and 4.5 sacks between them both. Croteau had 5.5 tackles for a loss.
Punter Brandon Bowers continued his excellent season with 6 punts for 255 yards on the night, averaging 42.5 yards per punt and 4 inside the 20. Hunter Simmons came back and nailed all 4 of his extra point attempts.
Lastly, penalties were a huge problem for SBCC, but Craig Moropoulos said sternly that they have already been addressed. 21 penalties accounted for 243 yards against the Vaqueros, 12 of which Moropoulos called "unusuals"—that is, unsportsmanlike conducts, late hits, personal fouls, and the like.
"Those are discipline. We've got to be better than that," he said.
The Vaqueros can finish the season with an outside chance at a bowl game with a win against Bakersfield, which would result in a 5-5 record. In the first year playing at a higher level, ending the year strong to get back to .500 has been a goal for the Vaqueros.
"If you told me we'd be able to get back to .500, I'd say, 'man, good job.'" Moropoulos said. "In the first year at this level—it's been very physical—that's a testament to this team."
SBCC plays at home Saturday night at 6:00 PM at La Playa Field.
