How close was SBCC to beating Hancock in Saturday’s football opener at La Playa Stadium? Tantalizingly close. After building a 10-0 first-quarter lead, the Vaquero offense went stagnant and the Bulldogs rallied to post a 14-10 victory in front of a crowd of 1,650.
Trailing 14-10, SBCC took advantage of a 5-yard punt and took over on the Hancock 40 with 1:20 remaining. Quarterback Conner Rehage hit Jed Elsberry with a 6-yard pass on fourth-and-4 from the 34 and then hooked up with Austen Lott on a 21-yard toss.
That gave the home team a first-and-goal from the 7 with 17 seconds left and sent the crowd into a frenzy. With no timeouts, Rehage spiked the ball on first down. His second-down pass went through the hands of Sean Hutchinson in the end zone and his final two attempts were both high.
“Missing that week hurt Connor (he sprained his ankle three weeks ago),” said SBCC coach Craig Moropoulos. “He was off a little bit but the encouraging thing is he threw some nice balls. We should have won, we were right there.
“I told the guys at halftime that we had to do something special to win the game. We came up seven yards short.”
Rehage, a sophomore from Dos Pueblos High, completed 15-of-34 passes for 125 yards with one interception.
Hancock dominated total yardage (389-187), rushing (345-62) and first downs (20-8) en route to its 14th straight win over the Vaqueros. Diondre Bryant rushed 17 times for 123 yards.
SBCC jumped ahead 10-0 in less than seven minutes. Aeryus Holloway intercepted Hancock’s Eric Anderkavich on the second play of the game, leading to a 25-yard field goal by Jeremy Ybarra.
After Hancock punted on its next possession, Ravonte Wilkerson returned the kick 72 yards up the right sideline, giving SBCC a 10-0 lead. Hancock cut the deficit to 10-7 on a 4-yard TD reception by Chris Van Pelt with 25 seconds left in first half.
On its first possession in the third quarter, Hancock took over on the SBCC 46 following a 16-yard punt. The Bulldogs needed just four plays to score with Anderkavich plowing in from 25 yards. He carried several defenders with him for the final 10 yards.
Justin Leverette rushed for 65 yards on 13 carries for SBCC and Wilkerson caught five passes for 27 yards. Nick Fought led the defense with 10 tackles.
“I was proud of the defense, they played hard,” said Moropoulos. “We knew we had a very inexperienced offense. We’re going to hang in there and get better. We had a couple of opportunities there at the end to win the game, but we just didn’t get it done.”
The Vaqueros travel to Canyons, ranked No. 3 in Southern Cal, next Saturday for a 7 p.m. game.
Box Score (Final)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
—————– — — — — —–
Allan Hancock……. 0 7 7 0 – 14 Record: (1-0)
Santa Barbara……. 10 0 0 0 – 10 Record: (0-1)
Scoring Summary:
1st quarter: 10:46 SBCC – Jeremy Ybarra 25 yd field goal, 7-20 3:14, AHC 0 – SBCC 3
08:13 SBCC – Ravon Wilkerson 72 yd punt return (Jeremy Ybarra kick), , AHC 0 – SBCC 10
2nd quarter: 00:25 AHC – Chris Van Pelt 4 yd pass from E Anderkavich (Casey Beluz kick), 9-76 3:10, AHC 7 – SBCC 10
3rd quarter: 11:57 AHC – E Anderkavich 25 yd run (Casey Beluz kick), 4-46 1:57, AHC 14 – SBCC 10
AHC SBCC
FIRST DOWNS………………. 20 8
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)………… 61-345 22-62
PASSING YDS (NET)…………. 44 125
Passes Att-Comp-Int……….. 8-4-1 34-15-1
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS….. 69-389 56-187
Fumble Returns-Yards………. 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards………… 1-1 2-84
Kickoff Returns-Yards……… 3-65 3-70
Interception Returns-Yards…. 1-0 1-3
Punts (Number-Avg)………… 4-25.8 7-29.0
Fumbles-Lost……………… 3-2 0-0
Penalties-Yards…………… 8-40 5-45
Possession Time…………… 33:37 26:23
Third-Down Conversions…….. 4 of 11 2 of 15
Fourth-Down Conversions……. 0 of 2 1 of 2
Red-Zone Scores-Chances……. 1-3 1-2
Sacks By: Number-Yards…….. 2-16 2-10
RUSHING: Allan Hancock-Diondre Bryant 17-123; Thomas Sua 11-68; JR Felgenhauer
7-47; E Anderkavich 12-36; Telv McMillian 4-31; Chris Van Pelt 6-21; Brad
Peterson 4-19. Santa Barbara-Justi Leverette 13-65; Tristan Carter 2-11; Bryant
Hilliard 2-4; Conner Rehage 5-minus 18.
PASSING: Allan Hancock-E Anderkavich 4-8-1-44. Santa Barbara-Conner Rehage
15-34-1-125.
RECEIVING: Allan Hancock-Dorson Boyce 2-29; Joshua Morris 1-11; Chris Van Pelt
1-4. Santa Barbara-Ravon Wilkerson 5-27; Austen Lott 3-43; Sean Hutchinson 2-30;
Xavier Johnson 2-10; Oscar Loza 1-9; Jed Elsberry 1-6; Tristan Carter 1-0.
INTERCEPTIONS: Allan Hancock-Joseph Scott 1-0. Santa Barbara-Holloway Aeryus
1-3.
FUMBLES: Allan Hancock-E Anderkavich 2-1; Brad Peterson 1-1. Santa Barbara-None.
Stadium: La Playa Stadium Attendance: 1650
Kickoff time: 6 pm End of Game: 8:42 Total elapsed time: 2:42
Officials:
Temperature: 72 Wind: Weather:
Allan Hancock vs Santa Barbara (Sep 06, 2008 at Santa Barbara)
SACKS (UA-A): Allan Hancock-Brennan Locker 1-0; Brent Thomas 1-0. Santa
Barbara-Clint Nix 0-1; Nate Goldie 0-1; Ken Dorset 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Allan Hancock-Lamar Allen 6-3; Michael Irving 4-3; Tim Ochoa
4-2; Brennan Locker 3-2; Mike Garza 0-6; Brent Thomas 2-1; David Vil 1-1; Eric
Jones 1-1; Brian Hughes 0-3; Austin Wilson 0-3; Dust Washington 1-0; Riley Gauld
1-0; Steele Asing 0-2; Casey Beluz 0-1; James Valez II 0-1; Joseph Scott 0-1.
Santa Barbara-Nick Vought 7-6; Logan Hurn 3-9; Nate Goldie 2-11; Matt Racowski
4-5; Ken Dorset 3-7; Nate Bailey 3-1; Clint Nix 3-1; Cameron Hines 2-3; Darrian
Albury 0-4; Ayikwei Kimathi 1-1; Arnold Doxie 1-1; Gary Braun 1-1; Osvaldo
Donato 0-3; Ever Cunningham 1-0; Mikke Vansgaard 1-0; Tristan Carter 0-2; Dean
Talley 0-1; Trayone Harris 0-1; Holloway Aeryus 0-1.
Player participation:
Allan Hancock: 2-James Valez II, 3-Joseph Scott, 6-Thomas Sua, 7-JR Felgenhauer, 10-Mike Garza, 13-Chris Van Pelt,
15-E Anderkavich, 20-Brad Peterson, 21-Tim Ochoa, 22-Michael Irving, 23-Lamar Allen, 27-Greg Watson, 28-Diondre Bryant,
32-Brian Hughes, 37-Michae Trujillo, 39-Telv McMillian, 40-Casey Beluz, 42-Austin Wilson, 45-Steele Asing, 52-Eric Jones,
55-Brent Thomas, 57-David Vil, 72-Riley Gauld, 82-Dorson Boyce, 83-Brennan Locker, 88-Joshua Morris, 96-Dust Washington.
Santa Barbara: 1-Ravon Wilkerson, 2-Xavier Johnson, 3-Holloway Aeryus, 4-Nate Bailey, 5-Trayone Harris, 9-Arnold Doxie,
11-Conner Rehage, 13-Jeremy Ybarra, 14-Oscar Loza, 15-Austen Lott, 19-Sean Hutchinson, 21-Tristan Carter, 23-Justi Leverette,
24-Eli Orosco, 25-Bryant Hilliard, 26-Leaualof Liilii, 28-Nick Vought, 42-Matt Racowski, 43-Nate Goldie, 45-Logan Hurn,
47-Gary Braun, 48-Mikke Vansgaard, 50-Darrian Albury, 51-Clint Nix, 55-Ken Dorset, 56-Cameron Hines, 57-Ayikwei Kimathi,
74-Ever Cunningham, 81-Jed Elsberry, 95-Dean Talley, 99-Osvaldo Donato.
