An incredible day for running back Demetrius Vinson lifted Santa Barbara City College to a 47-18 win over College of the Desert on Saturday afternoon at La Playa Stadium.
Vinson scored five touchdowns, setting a school record for rushing scores in a single game.
Vinson, filling in for injured Perry Martin, spearheaded a powerful Vaquero offense which put up over 400 yards on the day, with 262 coming on the ground.
“The O-line had a great game, I couldn’t have done it without them,” said Vinson. “I kept running hard, moving my feet and looking for anything I could get. We couldn’t ask for a better offensive line, even with injuries and adversity, we’re still getting through.
“I knew I had to step up when Perry (Martin) went down with an injury. I’ve been working hard in practice and studying film and it paid off. I love this team, we have a lot of talent.”
In the first quarter, SBCC quarterback Noah Holle found wide reciever Jason Mathew-Sharsh down the left sideline for a 16 yard touchdown pass.
From there, Vinson took over, scoring on two of SBCC’s next 3 drives. Vinson turned a broken play at the line of scrimmage into a 27 yard touchdown by reversing direction and finding a lane to the end zone. Two drives later, Vinson rumbled into the end zone on a 21-yard run during which he broke multiple tackles.
The Vaqueros (4-1) were up 20-0 at halftime.
“I knew Demetrius had a lot of big-time plays today,” said Moropoulos. “I was worried about Desert’s offense, they were really good. We made some mistakes on defense but we also made a lot of plays.
“We didn’t have Isaac McClain in the offensive line today but we still rushed for 262 yards. A win is a win, we’re always pleased to get one. It’s huge to have a week off now, right before we play Hancock and we have two weeks to prepare.”
The second half was much of the same, with Sharsh returning the opening kickoff to the Roadrunner’s 22 yard line and Vinson punching the ball in from 3 yards out two plays later, putting the Vaqueros up 26-0 after a failed two-point conversion attempt.
College of the Desert finally got on the board with a 1 yard touchdown run by Robbie Polimeni that capped off a long 19 play, 78 yard drive, making the score 26-7.
SBCC responded almost immediately, with Vinson taking the second carry of the next drive 75 yards for his fourth touchdown.
On the ensuing kickoff, SBCC’s Abel Gonzalez, a sophomore from Bishop Diego High, forced a fumble by Reginald Macon and Ervin Osei-Wusu picked up the ball at the 14 and returned it for the Vaqueros’ second TD in 16 seconds. That made it 40-7.
In the fourth quarter Vinson scored his final touchdown of the day on a 3 yard rush, set up by a 67-yard reception by Sharsh from Holle. Holle ended the day 8-15 with 159 yards and a touchdown. He also threw two picks. Sharsh finished the day with 4 catches for 114 yards.
SBCC’s defense didn’t give up much to the Roadrunners, and the visitors suffered a big blow when quarterback De’Abrie Smith exited the game with an injury in the third quarter. Smith was 12-25 with 84 yards and three interceptions when he exited. Freshman Darius Hulsey replaced him and performed well, going 15-28 with 105 yards and a touchdown.
The Roadrunners got 70 yards rushing from Kamone Best on 12 attempts and 40 yards on 11 attempts from Anthony Ellison.
Desert scored on a 16-yard pass and catch from Hulsey to Trevon Williams, and converted the two-point conversion. A late Desert field goal by Alex Duarte rounded out the scoring at 47-18.
SBCC has a bye this upcoming week and travels to Santa Maria to face Allen Hancock on October 15.
— Noozhawk sports reporter Christian Eckert can be reached at ceckert@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports and @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.