San Marcos flag football battled its way to a 41-25 victory over Ventura High on Thursday in Ventura.
The Royals (21-3, 12-1 Channel League) trailed 19-14 heading into the halftime locker room, but they outscored the Cougars (17-9, 8-5 CL) by a margin of 27-6 in the final two quarters to secure the win.
After the Cougars scored on their opening drive for a 7-0 lead, the Royals responded with a scoring drive of their own that ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Victoria Aldana to Rio Chesluk. Aldana rushed in the extra point to tie the game up.
Ventura punched back with a touchdown on the next drive, but failed the extra-point attempt to keep its lead at 13-7.
On the next play of the ensuing drive, Aldana hit Janelle Capuno for an electric 66-yard touchdown catch and run. Chesluk hauled in the extra-point attempt to take a 14-13 advantage.
The Cougars came roaring back just before halftime, scoring a touchdown with 12 seconds left in the half. They then secured a defensive stop to take a 19-14 lead into halftime.
San Marcos kicked off the second-half scoring with some trickery as Chesluk caught a pass on the sideline and pitched it to Peyton Sperling, who found her way into the endzone for a 20-19 lead.
The Royals’ defense then came up with a stop, setting up Sperling for a 10-yard receiving touchdown on the next drive to extend the lead to 26-19.
Ventura woke back up on the offensive end with a 66-yard scoring drive, but another failed extra-point attempt left San Marcos in the lead at 26-25.
The Royals then took control in the fourth quarter, shutting out the Cougars while scoring two more touchdowns on a 6-yard run by Aldana and a third touchdown from Sperling.
A pair of extra-point conversions by Chesluk brought the game to its final score of 41-25.
Jaylee Perez came up with two big sacks for San Marcos, while Marilyn Monroy was all over the place defensively throughout the night.
Dos Pueblos 51, Oxnard 6
The Chargers exploded for a lopsided win over the Yellow Jackets on Thursday in Goleta.
Kacey Hurley threw an impressive seven touchdown passes and rushed one in herself.
Kindah Ahmad-Reda was on the receiving end of four of those touchdown passes, while Brooklyn Hedricks, Ruby Streatfeild and Esme Mazurkiewicz caught scores as well.
Hedricks, Ahmad-Reda and Hanna Kaminsky all converted point-after attempts.
On the defensive side of the ball, Mazurkiewicz hauled in two interceptions and Hedricks had one of her own. Zenia Potter, Lucia Riley, Paige Ferro and Tabby Weller all recorded a sack.
Dos Pueblos is now 22-2 overall and 12-1 in league play.
Santa Barbara High 19, Pacifica 6
The Dons came out on top in a defensive battle against the Tritons on Thursday in Oxnard.
“We knew it was going to be a physical game, but we put them on their heels early and played through their toughness,” Santa Barbara High head coach Travis Mañach said.
After forcing a turnover on downs on the opening possession, the Dons moved the ball right down the field and Lylee Harris scampered into the endzone for a 10-yard rushing touchdown.
Harris then completed the extra-point attempt to Alyssa Ortiz to take a 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing drive, Santa Barbara’s Maria Cardozo Orozco came up with an interception to set up a 20-yard touchdown pass from Laila Hernandez to Elina Stump to grow the lead to 13-0.
Pacifica put up its lone points of the night later in the first quarter to cut the Dons’ lead to 13-6 heading into the second.
The Dons tacked on another score in the second quarter as Hernandez and Stump connected once again, this time from 29 yards out to bring the advantage to 19-6.
The second half was headlined by both defenses as that score remained until the final whistle to give Santa Barbara the win.
“I’m proud of how the girls showed up tonight,” Mañach said. “We had to wait a while to kick off due to a tackle game, but they came out on fire and carried that momentum for the entire game. It felt good after a rough start to the week.”Â
Camila Salcedo tallied three sacks for the Dons, while Vanessa Esparza, Yadira Soriano Miguel, Sofia Lopez and Stump all had strong defensive games as well.