Coach JT Stone wants to keep his group of Santa Barbara High School football seniors as long as he can.
He’ll have them for another round of the CIF-Southern Section playoffs after an inspiring performance on Friday night.
The seniors made clutch play after clutch play in leading the Golden Tornado — the moniker Santa Barbara uses during the playoffs — to a 36-20 victory over previously undefeated Campbell Hall in a Division 6 first-round game at Birmingham Charter High School in Van Nuys.
“The whole week I told them, ‘I’m not ready to give you guys up yet. I’m not ready for you to go yet. I hope you guys aren’t ready to leave each other.’ And we’ve been riding on that,” Stone said of his seniors. “We’re going to ride this thing out. We’re a family, and we’re going as hard as we can. And they really bought into that. We don’t want to be done.
“I want to spend more time with these guys, so I’m glad they came out and played well.”
The victory sends Santa Barbara (8-3) into the quarterfinals against Newport Harbor (4-7) next Friday at Peabody Stadium.
Newport Harbor beat Sunny Hills, spoiling a rematch of the 2019 CIF Division 8 championship game.
The Golden Tornado were on fire from the start. Sophomore quarterback Abel Renteri, making his playoff debut, drove the team 98 yards on its first possession. Senior running back Nathan Barrios finished the eight-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Santa Barbara went for a 2-point conversion, and Julian Castro passed to senior Vince Gamberdella to make it 8-0.
Campbell Hall showed off its talent on the next possession. Quarterback Isaiah Sepand, who passed for more than 2,000 yards this season, used big tight end Christopher Hammond and running back David O’mara to drive the Vikings to a touchdown. O’mara scored on a 4-yard run and Vicente Navarro kicked the PAT to leave them down a point, 8-7.
Campbell Hall tried an onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds, giving Santa Barbara possession at the Vikings 49.
The Golden Tornado capitalized on the short field and reached the end zone in seven plays. Renteria hit senior Miguel Unzueta on a slant pattern for an 18-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. Jeffrey Lechuga’s PAT kick made it a 15-7 game at 11:53.
Santa Barbara made it 22-7 on a spectacular play on the first play of the second quarter. Winston Bartley took a shovel pass and scooted 34 yards to the end zone. Lechuga booted his second PAT at the 8:59 mark.
Andrew Tobin picked off a long Sepand pass at the 15, but the play was nullified on a penalty against Santa Barbara.
Campbell Hall got a boost as its defense stopped the Golden Tornado on a fourth and 1 at the 26.
That play sparked the Vikings’ offense as O’mara broke off a long run to the Santa Barbara 5. Sepand ran into the end zone and fumbled the ball, but the Vikings recovered for the touchdown to make it 22-14 at the half.
Senior Anthony Lopez intercepted Sepand at the Santa Barbara 20 in the third quarter, and he returned it to the Campbell Hall 32. A block in the back penalty moved the ball to the 47.
Barrios got the call for the Golden Tornado and tore through the Campbell Hall defense. He finished the drive with a 10-yard run for a 29-14 advantage with 6:15 left in the third quarter.
“In order for us to get where we want to be, it starts on the ground,” Stone said. “Nathan and Koa Herrera ran the ball well.”
After an exchange in turnovers, Campbell Hall, with the aid of some Santa Barbara penalties, moved the ball to the 10. But the drive stalled as the Golden Tornado defense stopped the Vikings on a fourth and 1.
Barrios broke off a 30-yard run to give Santa Barbara some breathing room before the Golden Tornado gave the ball back to the Vikings.
Hammond made another terrific catch of a Sepand pass as Campbell Hall moved back into the red zone in the fourth quarter. The Golden Tornado, however, slammed the door on the Vikings as they pressured Sepand to make a couple of hurried throws.
Santa Barbara got a clutch reception from Unzueta to keep possession before Barrios and Koa Herrera reeled off big runs to set up a 1-yard run by Renteria for a 36-14 lead with 2:54 left in the game.
The Vikings got one more score on a Sepand-to-Hammond pass.
“We were just ready. We were prepared,” Stone said of the first-round playoff performance that extends their season another week. “We really didn’t want to leave. We weren’t ready to go home. And the kids understood that.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.