It’s been nearly two years since the Santa Barbara City College football program won a game, and while the team failed to break that streak in its season opener, there were signs of life for the rest of the season.
The Vaqueos lost their home opener to visiting El Camino Community College, 61-7, at La Playa Stadium Saturday night. It is SBCC’s 12th straight loss dating back to the 2024-25 regular season.
The Vaqueros put up a valiant effort early, but untimely penalties and mistakes ultimately led to a 35-0 halftime deficit.
“We’re very young and young people make young mistakes,” SBCC Head Coach Craig Moropoulos told Noozhawk. “But there were enough positives. Yes, we got beat by a lot, and we didn’t play real well at the end of the second quarter and the third quarter; it got away from us, but I saw some real positive things.”
One of the positive things he saw came deep in the third quarter when SBCC’s freshman running back Levi Cavalli capped off a 14-play, 75-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run, the first of his career.
On that drive, Cavalli rushed for 29 yards and even added an 11-yard reception thanks to a solid pass from freshman quarterback Tua Rojas, a recent Bishop Diego High grad.
Rojas, who played mostly in the second quarter and beyond, was the team’s leading passer, finishing 9-for-18 for 81 yards. Cavalli was the team’s leading rusher, racking up 39 yards on 10 carries.
“That touchdown was huge for us. We have a lot of guys playing their first college game, and the two guys that made a lot of that happen on that drive — Tua and Levi — were playing their first college game, and to have some success like that, and to get the ball in the end zone, I was very pleased,” Moropoulos said.
The game started with El Camino driving down the field for an opening touchdown as quarterback Maika Eugenio rushed for a seven-yard score to give his team the 7-0 lead.
But after that opening possession, SBCC’s defense was holding strong, forcing a punt on the next drive and, two drives later, again forcing another punt to keep the offense in it.
A turning point came when the Vaqueros, trailing by 14, muffed a punt inside their own 20-yard line that was recovered by El Camino midway through the second quarter. The Warriors would score on the very next play, as Eugenio hooked up with his receiver, Alec Saunders, for a 20-yard touchdown.
Eugenio was impressive in his opener, going 15-for-22 for 231 yards and three touchdowns through the air, also adding seven yards on the ground and another score.
The game really got away from the Vaqueros in the third quarter, as El Camino opened the half marching down the field to take a six-touchdown lead, returned a punt for a 45-yard touchdown two minutes later and intercepted a pass for a touchdown seconds later to take a commanding 55-0 lead.
SBCC’s lone scoring drive came after the pick-six, which Moropoulos said was a sign of his team’s resilience.
“We’re not about doing things that are distracting to the game or disrespectful to the game. We’re about when you make a mistake, you get better from it, and you come back, and you never give up, and so that drive was all about,” he said. “It says a lot for these young men that they’re buying into that, and they kept playing hard no matter what the score was.”
SBCC will travel to face Pasadena City College on Sept. 5, with kickoff slated for 6 p.m.
For Moropoulos, he just wants to see one thing next Saturday: “improvement.”
“I just want to improve. I know that sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. I just want to see what we did wrong on film, understand it, fix it, and then don’t do it again. And if we can do that, especially on the offensive line, we will be better,” he said.