Santa Barbara City College football struggled to find a rhythm offensively in Saturday’s 45-20 loss to El Camino at La Playa Stadium.
With the loss, the Vaqueros dropped to 1-3 in conference play and 3-4 overall. The Warriors, meanwhile, moved to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 in conference action.
“It’s a very challenging level and we knew that, and we’ve had struggles,” SBCC head coach Craig Moropoulos said. “We’re learning every day and that’s all I can ask for.”
Following a punt by the Vaqueros on the opening drive of the game, the Warriors began to march down the field, including a 33-yard catch by Richard Kick and a 29-yard rush from Marceese Yetts.
However, with El Camino threatening at the SBCC 15-yard line, a bad snap led to a scramble on the ground for the ball that Vaquero defensive lineman Caleb McNeil-Tyler pounced on to grab the momentum for his squad.
The SBCC offense couldn’t capitalize as the unit struggled to move the ball on the ensuing drive, a trend that would continue for the majority of the night.
The Warriors made them pay, bouncing right back with a nine-play, 74-yard drive that was capped off by a 7-yard touchdown pitch and catch from Dayton Tafoya to Joshua Lorick to capture a 7-0 lead with 3:36 left in the first quarter.
Both defenses then buckled down and made some big plays, alternating five straight scoreless drives.
El Camino got back into the endzone with eight minutes left in the half when Tafoya floated a pass 37 yards down the field to Moses Ross for a touchdown, doubling the lead to 14-0.
That lead was subsequently cut in half on the very next play, as Jackson Meehan gave the fans in La Playa Stadium a jolt with a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
However, the Vaqueros didn’t take advantage of the momentum swing, going scoreless for the rest of the half while El Camino tacked on two more passing touchdowns by Tafoya to take a 28-7 lead into the locker room.
“They were really good up front and we had a couple of injuries that were unfortunate,” Moropoulos said of the early struggles. “It’s football, that’s the way it is.”
The rout continued in the third quarter, as SBCC quarterback Will Doherty threw a 36-yard pick-six to Abdul Muhammad and the Warriors added on a field goal to bring their lead to 38-7 heading into the final quarter.
El Camino seemingly put the finishing touches on the victory with 13:48 left in the fourth quarter when they scored another touchdown, this one a 10-yard rush by Gemini Batimana to extend the advantage to 45-7.
The Vaqueros didn’t roll over, however, as Doherty led the offense on a 12-play, 81-yard drive that was finished off by Kayden Chan, who took a swing pass and bulldozed into the endzone for the first offensive touchdown of the game.
After a missed extra point, SBCC trailed 45-13 with 5:38 to play.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, a freshly-motivated Vaquero defense forced and recovered a fumble to put the offense inside the El Camino 10-yard line.
From there, Doherty turned to Chan once again, this time on a jet sweep that the wideout took 6 yards for his second score in one minute of play. The touchdown made it 45-20, a score that would hold for the rest of the game.
“I was really proud of the way the guys rose up there in the fourth quarter and put together a couple things,” Moropoulos said. “They could’ve just quit, and they didn’t so that in itself is a victory. We just gotta build on that.”
The Vaqueros will look to turn around their conference season on the road next Saturday against Allan Hancock at 2 p.m.
“It was a tough loss, every loss is tough but you gotta respond back,” Moropoulos said. “The hard part about this level that we’re playing at is that every week is tough.”
