BEVERLY HILLS — The stars are in Beverly Hills, but they weren’t aligned with the Santa Barbara High football team on Friday night.
“We made some bad decisions on offense,” said Santa Barbara head coach Will Gonzales. “We stopped executing in the second half.”
A 28-17 third quarter lead quickly turned into a 37-28 loss for the Dons, as the Beverly Hills High Normans avenged last year’s defeat at Peabody Stadium.
The pass-happy Dons offense threw the ball 41 times in the game, and it was an all-or-nothing night for quarterback John Uribe. The senior completed 24 of those 41 tosses for 281 yards. He threw for three touchdowns in the first half, and ran one in on his own for the Dons’ only score of the second half.
Those are solid numbers, but the Normans’ secondary overshadowed it by nabbing five interceptions.
“We needed to play a little better defensively in the second half. And John missed some things that he normally hits, and you wish you had some of those balls back, but you live and learn and we’ll go on from here,” said Gonzales.
As they go on, the Dons will no doubt keep airing it out. Uribe, after all, is coming off of a 22-touchdown season in which he amassed over 2,100 passing yards. And he’s got some stellar targets in Bryson Lloyd, Roberto Nelson and RJ Bisquera. That trio accounted for 20 catches on Friday.
The Dons jumped out to a 14-0 lead after a Nelson catch in the corner of the end zone and a 60-yard bomb to Bisquera that set up a scoring catch by Lloyd. Beverly Hills responded with a 1-yard touchdown run by bruising tailback David Saedi early in the second. Uribe hit Nelson on a four-yard route to give Santa Barbara a 21-7 edge, but the Normans sneaked in a touchdown by Brandon Bank just before the half.
Humberto Ahumada made a big tackle that held the Normans to a field goal on their first drive of the third quarter, and Uribe led a 70-yard march on the ensuing drive, which ended in the senior punching one in from two yards out.
Then the breaks started going the Normans’ way. Nelson was called for pass interference near the end zon, and two plays later 245-pound offensive lineman Jon Jun fell on a fumble by teammate Kenny Bassett to give the hosts a touchdown and cut the Dons lead to 28-23.
A stalemate ensued until Saedi broke a handful of tackles for a 20-yard scamper that set up his one-yard touchdown run, putting the Normans up 29-28 with 2:55 left. Santa Barbara hoped that final 2:55 would produce some points, but Saedi intercepted Uribe’s first pass and the Normans went on to ice it with a final touchdown.
The Dons are now 0-2, with those two losses coming against strong teams in Oxnard and Beverly Hills.
“I’ve always tried to put together a tough preseason schedule to prepare for league. You can’t win league on September, you know,” said Gonzales.
Righetti is up next.
(Photo of Santa Barbara’s RJ Bisquera courtesy of Kelly Lloyd)
BEVERLY HILLS 37, SANTA BARBARA 28
Santa Barbara………….14 7 7 0 — 28
Beverly Hills……………….0 14 9 14 — 37
First Quarter
8:00 — SB Uribe 14 pass to Nelson (Chandler kick)
6:00 — SB Uribe 4 pass to Lloyd (Chandler kick)
Second Quarter
11:00 — BH Saedi 1 run (Munzer kick)
7:00 — SB Uribe 4 pass to Nelson (Chandler kick)
0:40 — BH Bank 3 run (Munzer kick)
Third Quarter
7:50 — BH Munzer 35 kick
4:43 — SB Uribe 2 run (Chandler kick)
1:46 — BH Jun Fumble rec. (Conversion failed)
Fourth Quarter
2:55 — BH Saedi 1 run (Conversion failed)
2:31 — BH Bank 2 run (Conversion good)
PASSING — Uribe 24-41-281, 3 TD, 5 INT.
RUSHING — Uribe 3-17, TD, Leonard 6-24, Bisquera 3-8, Lucatero 1-3.
RECEIVING — Lloyd 6-64, Nelson 5-100, Bisquera9-104, Leonard 4-22, Mendoza 2-14.
