It has been a rough start to the season for the Santa Barbara City College football team, but its coaches and players are not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
The Vaqueros suffered a brutal loss Saturday night at La Playa Stadium, losing 62-3 against visiting Pasadena City College in the team’s home opener.
It was the second straight week SBCC allowed 60-plus points, something the team had not done since 2019 before this season. With the loss, the Vaqueros fell to 0-2 while the Lancers picked up their first win of the season, improving to 1-1.
Vaquero head coach Craig Moropoulos, who is in his 19th year of coaching at SBCC, told Noozhawk that the team’s youth was evident during its 59-point loss, but there were still positives to take note of as the season is still young.
“This loss is not a good feeling, but it’s going to happen, it’s going to make them better people,” Moropoulos said. “To persevere through these losses builds your character. You can either leave or you can learn from this, and that’s the message I shared with these kids.”
Offensively, the Vaqueros did have some standouts. Freshman quarterback Cole Luekinga went 26-for-41, tossing for 289 yards and throwing no interceptions.
He had a strong drive at the end of the first quarter, as the Vaqueros were trailing 14-0 and Luekinga went 6-for-10 on the drive that ended in a field goal — SBCC’s only points of the night.
“He’s throwing the ball, he’s getting completions despite being under a lot of heat. Our offensive line is very young, and so he was under duress, but I thought he threw the ball well,” Moropoulos said.
During that drive, Luekinga converted two big third downs, finding Nate Jetter for 15 yards on a 3rd-and-8 and connecting with Jyce Jones for 17 yards on 3rd-and-16.
He would later find Jetter, the Vaqs’ leading receiver on the night, for 31 yards on a beautiful toss down the right sideline, setting SBCC up with 1st and goal.
“Jetter is a very good football player,” Moropoulos said.
Overall, SBCC had a balanced passing attack, as 10 different Vaqueros registered at least one catch.
Jetter finished with 91 yards on five receptions while former San Marcos High School standout Quinn Donnell racked up 53 yards on four catches. Kerek Kato hauled in six catches for 49 yards.
“That’s what I like to do in my offenses, is spread it around and move the ball around because then they can’t take one guy out and expect to stop you,” Moropoulos said.
Defensively, there were some good contributions, but also more breakdowns. PCC’s first two scores of the game came courtesy of a 75-yard touchdown pass and a 41-yard touchdown pass as the Vaqueros’ secondary got torched most of the night.
PCC’s starting quarterback, Max Grizzell, tossed the ball 14 times, completing 10 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns. Backup quarterback Xavier Buckles went 8-for-12 on the afternoon for 132 yards.
Even when SBCC played well on first and second down, the Lancers were able to convert third downs efficiently, going 5-for-10 on third downs.
“We have to just keep getting better at limiting those big plays, that is what is hurting us the most,” Moropoulos said. “It’s unfortunate, but we are here with them; we are loyal to our players, that is what coaching is about.”
SBCC got the short end of the stick right before half, as a two-minute drill drive got the Vaqueros down to the six-yard line with 11 seconds left. Luekinga completed a short pass to Kato, who was tackled hard at the one-yard line.
Unfortunately, during the tackle, Kato’s helmet came off, which is a 10-second run off without a timeout, leaving the Vaqueors unable to run one more play before the half, going into the break down 28-3.
Pasadena City College’s Noah Triplett would return the opening kickoff of the second half 94 yards for a score. From there, it was all Lancers.
Despite the loss, Moropoulos is adamant that the team could find some good takeaways and be better in the following weeks.
Moropoulos noted that, given the youth of the team, a lot of his players are having to learn on the fly and that continuing to build their confidence will be key.
“We can’t sit there and wait for something negative to happen, we have to believe we are going to finish drives, believe we are going to make stops and once we start piling those up, their confidence will begin to rise. We have a lot of young guys and we need some success to build their confidence,” Moropoulos said.
SBCC will be at Cerritos next Saturday, Sept. 13, for a 6 p.m. kick.