An impressive 93-yard drive Friday night demonstrated that Santa Barbara High’s football team is starting to put some things together and look dangerous with the ball.
On the defensive side, though, the Dons still have a lot of work to do.
An efficient Pacifica team exploited Santa Barbara’s weaknesses and kept the Dons winless by scoring a 42-14 non-league victory in their homecoming game at Peabody Stadium.
Led by steady quarterback Max Mondol and the hard running of tailback Jose Garcia, Pacifica rolled up over 400 yards in offense. Garcia was the Tritons’ Mr. Touchdown as he reached the end zone five times.
“We’ve been doing it pretty much most of the year,” Pacifica coach Donnie Rea said of his team’s offensive punch. “We had a little blip where we made a bunch of turnovers against Nordhoff a couple of games before. We’re averaging close to 400 yards a game. That’s pretty good.”
Mondol took advantage of young and inexperienced Santa Barbara cornerbacks and completed 10- to 15-yard passes to keep drives alive. Mondol was a model of efficiency. He completed 13 of 18 passes for 203 yards and one touchdown.
“We have a lot of injured guys outside, so we’re trying a lot of guys outside,” said Santa Barbara coach Jaime Melgoza. “It’s one of those things.”
DONS-PACIFICA PHOTO GALLERY
Offensively, Santa Barbara showed it has some weapons. Running back Brayden Stuva had a career game with 115 yards rushing on 16 carries and one touchdown, while quarterback RJ Rosborough showed his double-threat abilities, passing for 129 yards and rushing for 64, including a 6-yard scoring run.
“I think our offense is going in the right way,” Melgoza said. “Our defense needs to make some adjustments. We’ve got to get healthy. We’re young, but we got a quarterback that has a lot of heart and it’s going to pay off.”
The problem the Dons run up against is having to play from behind. Against Pacifica, they trailed 13-0 in the first quarter.
“We’re a team that needs to get up,” Melgoza said. “We’ve got to start scoring a little bit more and get ahead of people. We haven’t been able to do that.”
The Dons fell behind after they fumbled a punt return at their 47. Pacifica’s Michael Maldonado broke off a 27-yard run on the first play after the fumble and the Tritons scored seven plays later on a 6-yard pass from Mondol to Frankie Estanol.
The Tritons (2-3) struck again on their next possession with Garcia scoring his first touchdown to cap a 41-yard drive. The PAT kick was missed, leaving the score 13-0.
Santa Barbara got its offense untracked the next time it had the ball. Led by Stuva and Rosborough, the Dons marched 93 yards for a touchdown. Rosborough scored on a 6-yard run off a quarterback draw.
Stuva rushed for 47 yards on the 14-play drive.
“Stuva’s getting healthy. He hasn’t been healthy since last year,” Melgoza said.
“He’s getting better and better. He’s starting to make things happen. He’s starting to visualize the holes on a more consistent basis.”
But the Dons’ defense couldn’t stop the Tritons from moving the ball.
“Our defense struggled a little bit tonight. They had some miscommunication,” said Melgoza.
Garcia added two more touchdowns for Pacifica before halftime to put the Tritons up 28-7.
Santa Barbara put together another long drive to start the third quarter, reaching the Pacifica 10 before a penalty pushed the Dons back five yards. After an incomplete pass on third down, they attempted a 30-yard field goal and missed.
Pacifica took over and marched 80 yards, with Garcia scoring on a 1-yard run.
Garcia took a pitch from Mondol and sprinted 27 yards for his fifth score of the night with 10:33 left in the fourth quarter.
Stuva broke free on a 27-yard run for Santa Barbara’s final score.
It was Santa Barbara’s final game before entering Channel League play next week, and Melgoza said the team will be starting fresh.
“We got five games to make the playoffs. That’s our goal, to make the playoffs,” he said. “We’re zero and zero, and we’re going to keep positive.”
PACIFICA 42, SANTA BARBARA 14
Pacifica…13 15 7 7 — 42
Santa Barbara…0 7 0 7 — 14
First quarter
P — Estanodl 6 pass from Mondol (Pineda kick), 6:56
P—J. Garcia 1 run (kick failed), 2:01
Second quarter
SB — Rosborough 6 run (Chandler kick), 7:28
P — J. Garcia 1 run (Garcia run), 3:57
P — J. Garcia 15 run (Pineda kick), :38
Third quarter
P — J. Garcia 1 run (Pineda kick) :58
Fourth quarter
P — J. Garcia 27 run (Pineda kick), 10:33
SB —Stuva 27 run (Chandler kick), 7:37
TEAM TOTALS P, SB
First Downs…22, 16
Rushes-yards…36-205, 231-198
Passing yards…203, 129
Total yards…408, 327
Passes…13-18-0, 14-24-0
Fumbles-lost…0-0, 1-1
Penalties…6-55, 4-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: P—J. Garcia 24-134, Maldonado 2-31 Manzo 2-5, Willis 2-6, Herrera 4-21, Crawford 1 (minus 2), A. Gonzalez 1 (minus 1) SB — Stuva 16-115, Rosborough 18-64, Perez 1-0, Velasquez 3-19.
Passing: P—Mondol 13-17-0 203 yards. Estanol 0-1-0 0 yards. SB—Rosborough 14-24-0, 129 yards.
Receiving: P —Estanol 6-89, Razo 4-51, Sanchez 2-33, Maldonado 1-20. SB — Foster 5-61, M. Perez 4-35, Chandler 4-24, B. Perez 1-9
Missed FG: SB, 30
