Santa Barbara High quarterback Franky Gamberdella hit Natani Drati on a 26-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds to go and kicker Jose Lopez booted the deciding extra point, lifting the Dons to a 14-13 victory over Dos Pueblos and spoiling the Chargers’ homecoming game before a huge crowd at Scott O’Leary Field on Friday night.
Drati had a big night for the Dons, catching 11 passes for 125 yards. His numbers, however, weren’t the biggest of the game. Those belonged to Dos Pueblos receiver Cyrus Wallace, who gained 239 receiving yards on 13 catches and scored a touchdown.
The loss ended a six-game winning streak for the Division 10 second-ranked Chargers, leaving them 6-2 overall and 1-1 in Channel League. Santa Barbara is 4-5 and 2-1.
Wallace set up a go-ahead touchdown for the Chargers with a little over 3 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. He caught a Kellen Roberts pass in the right flat, made a spin move and raced 77 yards to the Santa Barbara 2. Roberts plowed into the end zone from the 1. On the extra point, Abe Barraza broke through the line and blocked Zachary Guttentag’s kick, leaving DP ahead 13-7.
“You can see the little things matter in football,” DP coach Nate Mendoza said. “We don’t down block good enough on the PAT, it gets blocked and we lose by one. You got to execute in all phases of the game and we didn’t.”
Dos Pueblos seemed headed for the win after Marcellous Gossett pressured Gamberdella and Charger Michael Elbert intercepted a pass at the Santa Barbara 37.
But Santa Barbara’s defense stuffed three Charger running plays and forced a punt with 1:12 to go.
The Dons took over at their 35 and on first down Dos Pueblos was called for pass interference. That moved the ball to the 50. With no timeouts left, Gamberdella hit Drati and Jeremiah Nicholson on 12-yard passes to put the ball at the 26 before spiking the ball to stop the clock.
On the next play, Gamberdella was wrapped up by Gossett but before going down the sophomore managed to flip the ball toward a teammate. The official ruled the play an incomplete pass, which stopped the clock. Mendoza was livid. He thought intentional grounding should have been called.
“The ball has to get to the line of scrimmage. That’s the rule. The ball definitely didn’t get to the line of scrimmage,” said Mendoza.
On the next play, Gamberdella connected with Drati on a fade route for the TD.
“It was crazy,” Drati said of the touchdown play. “I saw myself open and just hoped I didn’t drop it. I was in the end zone when I caught it.”
Drati knew coming into the game he would see a lot more passes because the DP defense would be concentrating on Chris “Tick” Jellison.
“We planned that. We knew they would double up on Tick and leave me open, so I knew I’d get the ball in this game and have to show up,” he said.
“Tani came up big, he had several catches, big catches, so I’m extremely proud of the way he played,” said Santa Barbara coach JT Stone.
Dos Pueblos still had time to retake the lead. The Chargers got a pass interference call to move the ball from their 33 to the 48. Roberts then connected with Wallace for 16 yards to the 36. He found Wallace again at the 20 and the receiver was engulfed by Don defenders and teammates after made the catch. The ball came loose and Elbert picked it up and ran into the end zone. The officials, however, ruled Wallace’s progress was stopped and time expired.
“We should have never been in that position, but hat’s off to Santa Barbara. They had a great game plan, their kids played really, really hard and tough. You can tell they really wanted this one tonight,” said Mendoza.
It was a terrific victory for Santa Barbara, who last week suffered a 50-21 loss on its homecoming night against Ventura.
“We were really prepared. We felt DP didn’t face a team like us all year, with the type of athletes we have,” said Stone.
The Dons’ offensive line played outstanding. Tackle Edwin Rivera did a tremendous job keeping Gossett away from Gamberdella most of the night and opened holes for running back Ruben Velez.
“We talked about it earlier in the week,” Stone said of his conversation with Rivera. ‘You have one job to do and that is to deal with Marcellous Gossett.’ Marcellous is a fabulous football player, he’s athletic, he’s hard to deal with.”
Said Mendoza: “Their O-line stepped up and they were able to keep Marcellous under control.”
Both teams had chances to score early but were thwarted by interceptions in the end zone. Elbert picked off Gamberdella and Jellison intercepted a Roberts pass on DP’s ensuing drive.
Santa Barbara’s Angel Velasquez recovered the ball after a bad snap on a DP punt, setting up the Dons’ first score. They scored on a 24-yard pass from Gamberdella to Jellison. Lopez’s PAT made it 7-0 with 6:50 left in the second quarter.
After being bottled up for most of the first half, DP’s offense got going in the last two minutes of the half. Roberts completed four passes to Wallace, moving the ball to the 21. Roberts scrambled for 3 yards with six seconds left. The Chargers lined up for a 36-yard field goal but failed to convert.
DP’s defense forced a fumble on Santa Barbara’s first possession of the second half and Erick Nisich recovered at the Charger 45. Five plays later, Roberts hit a streaking Wallace on a 34-yard touchdown pass. Guttentag’s PAT tied the score at 7-7 with 6:05 left in the third quarter.
The Chargers were on the move again, with the help of a two major penalties by Santa Barbara. But the Dons’ defense rose to the occasion as Drati intercepted a pass at the 15.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.