Santa Barbara High football is firing on all cylinders at the right time.
The Golden Tornado opened the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs with a dominant 45-7 rout of Fullerton on Friday night in front of a packed Peabody Stadium.
No. 2-seeded Santa Barbara High dominated from start to finish on both sides of the ball to set up a second-round matchup on the road against Baldwin Park, which defeated Ventura in dramatic fashion in their playoff opener.
“Every opponent’s gonna be a whole new kind of season in its own. It’s all about matchups in the playoffs. I’m really proud of the boys,” Santa Barbara High head coach Nate Mendoza said. “Great team win. We’ll enjoy it tonight, and then let’s keep this thing rolling.”
Junior quarterback Griffin Arnold was in complete control, completing 20-of-23 passes for 331 yards and five touchdowns. Three of those touchdowns went to junior Cade Mault, who totaled five catches for 109 yards.
“We had the right mentality going in the whole week. We knew this was kind of a statement game. Being in D6, we really want to make a run,” Arnold said.
“Our goal this whole year was to make a deep run in the playoffs. It was really cool to see that our scheme, our game plan, all worked perfectly… We just want to keep putting on a show for the alumni and the fans.”
The Golden Tornado defense stood tall on the opening drive to force a punt, and the offense got right to work. Arnold and SB needed just six plays to find the endzone, with Arnold hitting Keegan Roessler in the flat before the sophomore broke a tackle and took off 38 yards for a touchdown.
The score and extra point gave the Golden Tornado a 7-0 lead with 5:58 left in the first quarter.
“With a team like (Fullerton) that wants to run it 50 times, to get a stop and a score to start the game is just huge,” Mendoza said.
The SB defense stayed hot on the next drive, forcing a three-and-out thanks in part to a sack by senior Lucas Blessing.
The sack gave the Golden Tornado strong field position, which it turned into points as Mault split the uprights on a 38-yard field goal to extend the lead to 10-0 with 2:22 to go in the first.
Fullerton then put together its strongest drive of the night as the game turned into the second quarter. The Red Hawks made their way inside the SB 25-yard line, but the Golden Tornado continued to stand strong against the run-heavy attack and forced a turnover on downs to keep the visitors off the board.
The SB offense got right back into its groove, cruising down the field with a mix of runs and passes before scoring on an 8-yard swing pass touchdown from Arnold to Mault. The score extended the lead to 17-0 with 3:10 left in the half.
The Golden Tornado came up with yet another stop on the ensuing drive, giving its offense a chance to strike once again with 1:25 left in the half and the ball at the SB 41-yard line.
The SB defense was strong throughout the night against a run-heavy, Wing-T offense that averaged 35.8 points per game in the regular season.
“One of our assistants came from a double wing T offense, was a part of it in high school and coached there. It was huge to have him,” Mendoza said. “We adjusted our defense, stuck to the game plan. The kids bought in. We threw them a big curveball Monday morning when we showed them what we were going to do… Our boys put on a show.”
Arnold continued to deal under center for Santa Barbara, getting into Fullerton territory before finding senior Fin Congdon wide open on the left side of the field. Congdon made several defenders miss as he weaved through the defense and found the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown with 38 seconds on the clock.
The extra point gave the Golden Tornado a commanding 24-0 lead at the halftime break.
The SB offense was stopped and forced to punt on its first drive of the second half, but the defense continued to flex its muscles by forcing a turnover on downs to maintain the dominant lead.
Mendoza then dialed up a deep ball on the first play of the next drive, with Arnold finding Mault behind the defense on a deep ball. Mault hauled in the pass and put a move on his one defender to beat, dusting him down the sideline for the 77-yard touchdown and a 31-0 advantage.
The Golden Tornado defense then got in on the scoring fun on the next drive, as Congdon stepped in front of a fourth-down pass for an interception and returned it back 60 yards for a pick-six. The big play ignited an already-buzzing Peabody crowd and gave SB a 38-0 lead with 4:19 left in the third.
The Red Hawks responded with their first points of the game, as Sergio Andrade found Isaac Garza for a juggling 34-yard touchdown catch to trim the deficit to 38-7 at the 2:42 mark.
The Golden Tornado then put the cherry on top of the victory early in the fourth quarter, with Arnold and Mault connecting for a touchdown for the third time, this one from 14 yards out to make it a 45-7 lead.
Two of Mault’s three touchdowns came on passes near the line of scrimmage, as the SB offense looked to get the ball in their playmakers’ hands early and often all night.
“We knew that they were going to kind of be off on us, so just let the receivers, let our athletes get the ball in their hands,” Arnold said. “I kind of took a seat in the back seat so we just kind of let the boys work and it was definitely fun to watch.”
That proved to be the final points of the night, as Santa Barbara High turned away Fullerton’s next drive, ran out the clock with the reserves in the game and got one last stop to secure the win.
While Arnold and Mault led the offensive outburst, Roessler and Congdon each ended with 66 receiving yards and a touchdown. Junior running back Everett Rabb-Preston totaled 114 yards of offense as well.
