Santa Barbara City College football brought an end to the 2024 season with a 40-17 road loss to Bakersfield on Saturday night.
The Vaqueros were in the game for the first three quarters, but a 20-point barrage by the Renegades allowed them to pull away and secure the win.
SBCC started strong, striking first on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Benni Collins to Tyreke Fortney to go up 7-0 with 8:54 left in the opening quarter.
Bakersfield responded on the ensuing drive with a score of its own courtesy of a 6-yard touchdown pass from Malachi Statler to Ja’Daniels Nettles.
The extra-point attempt was missed, giving the Vaqueros a slim 7-6 lead that held into the second quarter.
SBCC continued the back-and-forth opening half with another scoring drive, extending its lead to 10-7 on a 43-yard field goal by Jackson Smith early in the second.
While the majority of the second quarter went scoreless, the Renegades snuck in the endzone on a 1-yard touchdown run by David Smith with less than one minute left in the half.
Heading into the locker room, Bakersfield held a 13-10 advantage and the game’s momentum.
That momentum carried over to the second half in a major way, as the Renegades rattled off 27 unanswered points in the third and fourth quarters to balloon their lead out to 40-10 with 3:30 remaining in the game.
The Vaqueros tacked on one more score before the time expired on a 26-yard connection between Parlan Sanders and Matthew Jonah-Eleweke to bring the game to its final score of 40-17.
SBCC struggled mightily to move the ball on Bakersfield, totaling just 204 yards of offense, including 22 on the ground, in the loss.
The Vaqueros end the season with an overall record of 3-7 and a conference mark of 2-5.
