Santa Barbara high football had its season come to a close with a 28-21 loss to El Modena in the first round of the CIF-SS Div. 4 playoffs on Thursday at Fred Kelly Stadium in Orange.
The Dons ended their inaugural year in the Conejo Coast League with an overall record of 6-4-1, including a 2-3 mark in league play.
The Santa Barbara High offense went to work immediately, taking the opening kick and driving 75 yards down the field in less than two minutes.
The seven-play drive was capped off by an 8-yard touchdown run by Kai Mault to give the Dons a 7-0 lead at the 10:03 mark of the first.
Mault ended the night with 116 all-purpose yards, including 78 receiving yards on four catches.
Following a defensive stop, Santa Barbara got right back to work on offense with a strong drive down the field that ended in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Laird Finkel to Mason Morales.
With 9:40 left in the second quarter, the Dons held onto a 14-0 advantage.
El Modena got on the board a couple of minutes later on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Sam Jackett to Brodie Hitchens to cut the Santa Barbara lead to 14-7.
The Dons continued to dominate the passing game on the ensuing drive as Finkel connected with Sammie Congdon for a 39-yard score and a 21-7 lead with 4:54 left in the half.
Finkel was unstoppable in the opening half, completing 13-of-18 passes for 248 yards and two scores.
The Vanguards added one more score in the final minutes of the half on a 3-yard touchdown run by Brodie Hitchens to cut their deficit down to 21-14 at halftime.
Coming out of the half, El Modena marched down the field on a methodical, nine-minute and 16-play drive that ended in a 4-yard touchdown pass from Xzavior Guess to AJ Leonard to tie the game up at 21-21 with 3:02 left in the third.
Following a stalled Santa Barbara drive, the Vanguards took their first lead of the night on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Guess to Deron Taylor to go up 28-21 with 9:36 remaining on the clock.
On the next drive, the Dons found themselves with a fourth down from their own 45-yard line. Head coach Nate Mendoza called for a fake punt, but El Modena came away with the stop to regain possession with six minutes left in the game.
The Vanguards then dominated the time of possession and came away with the 28-21 win in front of their home crowd.
El Modena had full control in the second half of the game, as the Vanguards possessed the ball for 19 of the 24 minutes of the half.