The numbers were truly staggering Friday night — no, not just the $700 billion congress voted on, but the passing totals accumulated by Santa Barbara High quarterback John Uribe at Peabody Stadium: 581 yards and seven touchdowns.
Uribe’s performance broke Santa Barbara County records for aerial productivity in a single football game. Uppermost on the senior quarterback’s mind, however, were the numbers on the scoreboard, showing the Dons defeated San Luis Obispo 51-21 for their first victory of the season.
“The win,” Uribe said. “We got that first win on our record.”
The Dons were 0-3 coming into the contest despite averaging better than 26 points a game. At the end of the first quarter Friday night, they were leading 29-0.
“It was homecoming, and we wanted to put on a show for everybody,” Uribe said. “That’s what we did.”
Uribe completed 28 of 34 passes, averaging better than 17 yards per attempt.
“He was on the mark the whole night,” said Andrew Mendoza, who caught a pair of touchdown passes. “Everything just clicked. It was nice.”
Not so nice, some San Luis Obispo coaches complained, after Roberto Nelson pulled down Uribe’s seventh TD pass, late in the fourth quarter, breaking the county record of six. Uribe had already shattered the record of 436 passing yards set by Dustin Kelly of Santa Maria’s St. Joseph High in 2001.
“That’s what we do,” said Dons head coach Will Gonzales, the mastermind of the offense. “I’m not going to apologize. We throw the ball 90-95 percent of the time. That’s our offense. Nobody complained when we lost.”
Nelson led the receiving corps with seven catches for a whopping 247 yards even though the ball resembled a bar of soap once he caught it. Nelson fumbled twice – costing himself a score when the ball slipped out of his hands and went out of the end zone for a touchback – and he turned another catch into a game of volleyball, bumping it to a defender, who slapped it back into Nelson’s grasp.
A lot of bounces went Santa Barbara’s way. Nelson’s first fumble was recovered 10 yards downfield by teammate Freddy Maldonado for a 45-yard gain. Uribe made a pair of two-point conversions on busted kick attempts – one was blocked, and the snap eluded him on the other. He found Ralph Padilla open in the end zone both times.
But the Dons also suffered a bad break when Bryson Lloyd, one of the nation’s leading receivers with 34 catches in his first three games, went out with a severe ankle sprain midway through the first quarter. Lloyd caught four passes for 47 yards before he went down.
“I felt a pop,” said Lloyd, leaning on crutches after the game. “I’ll be getting physical therapy next week.” Meanwhile, he said the Dons’ hurry-up, no-huddle attack is OK without him. “We have so many threats,” he said. “We spread out and go long. We’re in great shape. Other teams are gasping for breath. They can’t keep up with us.”
Uribe’s first two TD passes were short flares to Kyle Leonard, who swung out of the backfield to the right sideline. The plays covered three and five yards.
The Dons went ahead 22-0 when Uribe hit the speedy Maldonado in stride for a score that covered 60 yards. After he threw a 21-yard strike to Mendoza for the fourth touchdown of the opening period, Uribe already had 260 passing yards to his credit.
Target practice continued in the second quarter, as Uribe completed five passes in a drive that ended with Maldonado’s two-yard reception in the end zone and a 36-0 Dons lead.
San Luis Obispo (2-2) finally got on the scoreboard, capitalizing on a Santa Barbara fumble. Nate Nunno scampered 18 yards for the touchdown. The hard-running Nunno, a 5-5, 145-pound workhorse, picked up 155 yards on the night.
The visiting Tigers had a potent passing combination in Dave Schultz-to-Alexander Turbow, but fierce pressure from Santa Barbara’s defensive end Spencer Kelly and linebacker Ian Echternacht forced Schultz to misfire on several occasions. Fil Monterosa and Mendoza intercepted passes for the Dons. Uribe was intercepted once.
Mendoza stoppped the Tigers with his interception at the Dons’ four in the third quarter. On second down, Uribe unleashed his longest pass of the night. It went 60 yards through the air, and Nelson gathered it in for a 77-yard gain to the San Luis Obispo 16. Uribe hit Mendoza for a touchdown on the next play, boosting Santa Barbara’s lead to 44-7.
After the Tigers put together a pair of scoring drives in the final quarter, Uribe put the Dons back in business with a 49-yard strike to Maldonado, and Nelson finally joined the scoring parade by leaping over a defender and grabbing a 16-yard TD pass.
The Dons will hit the road at Oxnard’s Pacifica High next Friday in their final tune-up for the Channel League.
SANTA BARBARA 51, SAN LUIS OBISPO 21
San Luis Obispo………..0 7 0 14 — 21
Santa Barbara …………29 7 8 7 — 51
First quarter
SB — Leonard 3 pass from Uribe (Chandler kick), 10:16.
SB — Leonard 5 pass from Uribe (Chandler kick), 5:10.
SB — Maldonado 60 pass from Uribe (Padilla pass from Uribe), 3:53.
SB — Mendoza 21 pass from Uribe (Chandler kick), 1:46.
Second quarter
SB — Maldonado 2 pass from Uribe (Chandler kick), 9:13.
SLO — Nunno 18 run (Lee kick), 5:54.
Third quarter
SB — Mendoza 16 pass from Uribe (Padilla pass from Uribe), 6:16.
Fourth quarter
SLO — Nunno 2 run (Lee kick), 9:13.
SLO — Goodman 7 pass from Schultz (Lee kick), 4:59.
SB — Nelson 16 pass from Uribe (Chandler kick), 2:00
TEAM TOTALS SLO SB
First Downs 20 21
Rushes-Yards 38-166 18-30
Passing Yards 192 581
Total Yards 358 611
Comp-Att-Int 15-26-2 28-34-1
Punts-Avg 5-35.4 3-34.3
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 3-2
Penalties-Yards 4-35 7-55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — SLO: Nunno 26-155, Fiscalini 5-14, Goodman 1-8, Viggianelli 3-6, Schultz 3-(minus 17). SB: Leonard 7-26, Lucatero 3-10, Uribe 6-(minus 2), Bisquera 2-(minus 4).
PASSING — SLO: Schultz 15-26-2-192. SB: Uribe 28-34-1-581.
RECEIVING — SLO: Turbow 7-93, Goodman 6-88, Frost 1-10, Nunno 1-1. SB: Nelson 7-247, Mendoza 6-105, Maldonado 4-113, Lloyd 4-47, Leonard 4-39, Bisquera 3-30.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — None
TEAM RECORDS — SLO 2-2, Santa Barbara 1-3
“That’s what we do,” said Dons head coach Will Gonzales, the mastermind of the offense. “I’m not going to apologize. We throw the ball 90-95 percent of the time. That’s our offense. Nobody complained when we lost.”
I have no problem with Coach Gonzales’ statement in regards to this issue, except for one thing. THESE ARE TWO STARTERS MAKING THIS PLAY and scoring with 2 mins. left. That is fine if you throw the ball 95% of the time, but in this situation you either throw the ball with your reserves or run the ball with your starters. There was no sportsmanship reason to have your starters throwing the ball and scoring with 2 misn left when you were already winning by 3 scores.