The pain in Zack Boytis’ shoulder is gone.
A painful season continues for the Santa Barbara Dons football team.
Boytis, the Dos Pueblos senior quarterback, showed no signs of the sprained right shoulder that kept him out of action several games, running for two touchdowns and throwing for another to lead the Chargers to a 27-0 victory over crosstown rival Santa Barbara Friday night at Peabody Stadium, extending the Dons’ winless season to seven games.
“This feels amazing,” exuded Boytis after the Channel League match-up that improved DP’s overall record to 3-4, 1-1 in league. “We lost to them last year, so this feels great to win here and leave a goose egg on them.”
Boytis, who scored on his lone two carries on the night, applied most of the hurt to the Dons with his healthy arm with 117 passing yards on 8-of-15 completions. He had returned to action last week during a blowout loss to Buena, but admitted the shoulder wasn’t completely healed until this week in preparation for this game.
“(The shoulder is) a lot better now,” he said. “Last week it wasn’t too good. But tonight there was no pain. I had a lot of fun out there. I’m happy tonight.”
Most of the groundwork was left to senior tailback Anthony Houston, who covered 164 yards on 24 carries and accounted for the Chargers’ other TD.
“It was tiring (being the workhorse),” Houston said. “But the line got strong and helped me to get it going out there.”
Dos Pueblos head coach Jeff Uyesaka soaked up the moment afterward as his charged-up players exited the field for their exhuberant bus ride home.
“I can’t remember the last time we came out with a win here,” he said. “This is a beautiful place to play football. It’s a traditional place.
“I will always respect Santa Barbara. Everybody was up for this game. This was an old-fashioned crosstown game.”
But memories of the Dons’ glory years, rendered by the halftime honoring of members of the 1989 squad that made a magical run for the CIF title, couldn’t channel any magic for the current Santa Barbara team.
“It’s just one of those years,” said Santa Barbara first-yeard head coach Jaime Melgoza. “We tell the kids, we’ve got to keep our heads up.”
The Dons started on a promising note, generating three first downs on a game-opening drive. But eventually forced to punt, Santa Barbara couldn’t get a kick off as a bad snap forced punter Chase Chandler to scramble for 16 yards to the DP 42. The gain was still a couple yards short of another first down.
Facing a fourth-and-two at their own 49 on their first possession, the Chargers didn’t play it safe by going for it. Boytis’ first pass of the night got the first down on a seven-yard completion on a slant pattern to Eric Arroyo.
The play seemed to fortify Boytis and DP with the sense of no fear. Five plays later — including a 37-yard spurt by Houston on a sweep right — Boytis’ shoulder felt no pain again on a 3-yard toss in the right side of the end zone to tight end Collin Powell.
The Dons punted again on their next possession, and the Chargers didn’t take long to score again. Boytis and Arroyo hooked up on another slant pass that covered 42 yards, and Houston ripped off gains of 10 and 14 yards for successive first downs on the next two plays to reach the Santa Barbara 8.
After Houston churned out another three yards, Boytis ran a naked bootleg around the left end that fooled the Dons defense for a 5-yard TD. Cory Micheel’s second PAT kick gave Dos Pueblos a 14-0 lead at the 10:13 mark of the second quarter.
Dons senior quarterback RJ Rosborough had the Dons moving again with a couple first downs on the ensuing possession. But a fumble recovery by DP linebacker Michael Rascon at the Santa Barbara 47 set up the Chargers’ next score.
Boytis was on target again on a 20-yard toss to Micheel to the Dons 32. After an 8-yard gain by Houston on a draw play, Boytis rolled left, scrambled right, and got a key block from lineman Leo Garcia that sprung him loose for a 24-yard touchdown run.
The Dons finally stopped the DP offense for the first time on an interception by Jake Wilhoite of a Houston pass off an option play with less than a minute left in the half.
“I don’t take anything away from DP,” said Melgoza. “All their strategies worked.
“We made mistakes and we couldn’t take advantage of their mistakes.”
The Dons managed to force two more DP turnovers in the second half — an interception of a Boytis bomb pass by Oracio Junior Tapia and a fumble recovery by Robert Palmer.
“Those were our first two interceptions of the year,” Melgoza noted. “But we haven’t been able to get to the quarterback all year. We’re a young team.”
Santa Barbara’s defense held Dos Pueblos to just one score in the second half. But that came on an impressive 98-yard drive, after the Dons were frustrated on their best chance to score on a fourth-and-goal at the DP 2 when Micheel knocked away a Rosborough pass.
Of the 13 Dos Pueblos offensive plays that followed, fullback Aaron Thomas’ 22-yard gain to the Dons 3 in which he shook off several defenders was the highlight. But Houston did most of the work on the drive, carrying the ball seven times for 53 yards, the last one from one yard out for a 27-0 lead with 8:01 remaining to play.
Rosborough showed some deft moves and scrambling ability in avoiding would-be tacklers that netted him 40 yards on 13 carries. He put up some fair passing numbers, too, with 18-out-of-33 completions for 125 yards. That total would have been higher if not for the one inadvertent completion he made to himself on a pass batted back to him that resulted in an 11-yard loss.
Kenny Foster caught eight of Rosborough’s completions for 67 yards.
It still added up to zero on the scoreboard for a Santa Barbara team that doesn’t want to end up the season with a zero in the win column.
“We’ve got three games left, and we need to get a win out of this,” said Melgoza.
DOS PUEBLOS 27, SANTA BARBARA 0
Dos Pueblos………………7 14 0 6 — 27
Santa Barbara…………….0 0 0 0 — 0
FIRST QUARTER
DP — Powell 3 pass from Boytis (Micheel kick), 1:30.
SECOND QUARTER
DP — Boytis 5 run (Micheel kick), 10:13.
DP– Boytis 24 run (Micheel kick), 5:31.
FOURTH QUARTER
DP– Houston 1 run (pass no good), 8:01.
TEAM STATISTICS DP SB
First Downs……………………………..18 12
Rushing: Car./Yds……………………..38/237 27/76
Passing: Comp-Att-Int………………..8-16-2 18-33-0
Passing Yds…………………………….117 125
Total Yds…………………………………354 201
Fumbles/Lost……………………………1-1 1-1
Penalties/Yds……………………………3-15 2-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING– DP: Houston 24-164, Thomas 5-37, Boytis 2-29, Tangel 2-11, Spiritosanto 1-3, Bartley 2-1, Micheel 1- (-8). SB: Rosborough 13-40, Stuva 9-23, Chandler 1-16, Jellison 2-5, Velasquez 1- (-1).
PASSING– DP: Boytis 8-15-1-117, Houston 0-1-1-0. SB: Rosborough 18-33-0-125.
RECEIVING– DP: Arroyo 2-49, Thomas 2-32, Micheel 1-20, Harris 1-8, Tangel 1-5, Powell 1-3. SB: Foster 8-67, Chandler 4-39, Stuva 2-16, B.Perez 2-14, M.Perez 1-0, Rosborough 1-(-11).
RECORDS– DP 3-4, 1-1 Channel; SB 0-7, 0-2 Channel.
