The first series was a good indicator that Santa Barbara High’s football team was in for a tough night against Lompoc.
After making a defensive stand on third down and forcing Lompoc to punt, the Dons were penalized for being offsides.
The Braves took full advantage and drove down the field for a touchdown. The Dons then threw an interception on their first possession and the Braves capitalized with another touchdown en route 28-0 lead.
Lompoc's Evan Aguilar outruns the Santa Barbara defense for his 64-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
Santa Barbara would show some life in the second half, but the damage was done and the Dons suffered a 41-17 loss at Peabody Stadium.
“We showed some good things,” Santa Barbara coach Jaime Melgoza said. “But we’re a young team. We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of crucial mistakes in the first half. On that first drive, we go offsides. Things like that can kill you at the beginning of the game. Those guys get a rhythm going and they start to score.”
Lompoc quarterback Evan Aguilar was a one-man wrecking crew. He rushed for 153 yards on only six carries and scored three touchdowns on runs of 1, 30 and 64 yards.
“He’s just a game breaker, bottom line,” first-year coach Andrew Jones said of Aguilar. “When you need a big play you usually get one out of him.”
His first big play came in the second quarter when he faked a handoff, rolled left and bolted 30 yards down the sideline for the Braves’ third touchdown.
On another one, he dropped the center snap, picked it up and raced 44 yards to set up a 32-yard field goal by Jose Morales with 32 seconds left in the second quarter.
That score came after Santa Barbara drove 72 yards for its first TD. Quarterback Shawn Ramos scramble nine yards for the score. The big play on the drive was a 46-yard option pass from running back Beto Lopez to receiver Matt Gonzalez.
“It was desperate,” Melgoza said of the Dons’ trickery. “We had to try it to get some points on the board and get this thing going. It worked, but other than that we got to get our offense clicking and start moving better.”
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Lompoc had no problems moving the ball. If it wasn’t Aguilar picking up yardage, it was running backs Marcel Blow or Jordan Collins.
Blow rushed for 110 yards on 14 carries as the Braves rolled up 366 yards on the ground.
“They did an excellent job,” Jones of his team, which improved to 2-1. “They came out early and we put it on (Santa Barbara) and we tried to stay on them. We ran the ball pretty well. Defensively, we’ve been flying around and making plays all year. We’re pretty quick.”
Ramos was a bright spot for Santa Barbara. He completed 11-of-19 for 179 yards, ran for a touchdown and caught a touchdown pass from Lopez in the third quarter. Ramos also was picked off twice.
Wide receiver Emilio Gonzalez was Ramos’ favorite target. He caught five passes for 90 yards.
“I thought a lot of our young guys played well,” Melgoza said. “Ramos stepped up. Emilio Gonzales played almost the whole game, and he’s another sophomore. We can’t ask for much more from the sophomores. We need the seniors to start picking it up.”
The Dons fell behind 7-0 after Aguilar scored on a 1-yard run at 6:52 of the first quarter. Blow’s 28-yard run two plays after Santa Barbara’s unfortunate offsides penalty on fourth down was the big play on the drive.
An interception by Willie Iribarren of a Ramos pass set up Lompoc for its second score, a 1-yard run by Blow over right tackle at 2:47 of the first quarter.
Aguilar’s 30 yard scamper made it 21-0 at 8:37 of the second quarter and a 4-yard run by Cornejo increased the Braves’ advantage to 28-0.
Santa Barbara finally got its offense untracked and Ramos scored on a 9-yard run to make it 28-7.
Lompoc went into the locker room ahead 31-7 after Morales’ 32-yard field goal.
The Braves’ first possession of the second half ended with Aguilar scrambling and breaking tackles on a 64-yard touchdown run.
Santa Barbara executed a razzle-dazzle play for its second touchdown. Ramos threw across field to Lopez, and the quarterback caught the return pass and ran into the end zone with 4:28 left in the third quarter.
Morales kicked a 31-yard field goal and the Dons’ Matthew Medina booted a 42-yarder to complete the scoring.
Lompoc…14 17 7 3 — 41
Santa Barbara… 0 7 7 3 — 17
First quarter
L—Aguilar 1 run, Morales kick, 6:52
L — Blow 1 run, Morales kick, 2:47
Second quarter
L—Aguilar 30 run, Morales kick, 8:37
L—Cornejo 4 run, Morales kick, 4:32
SB—Ramos 9 run, Medina kick, 1:18
L—FG 32, Morales, :32
Third quarter
L—Aguilar 64 run, Morales kick, 8:34
SB—Ramos 9 pass from Lopez, Medina kick, 4:28
Fourth quarter
L—FG 31, Morales, 11:10
SB—FG 42, Medina, 8:06.
L SB
First Downs 18 14
Rushes-Yards 44-366 24-58
Passing yards 57 244
Att-Comp-Int 4-9-0 13-21-2
Total yards 423 302
Penalties-yards 5-41 5-30
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-1
Rushing—L: Aguilar 6-153, Blow 14-110, Collins 14-45, Coleman 2-40, Cornejo 3-6, Lopez 1-1, Black 2-3, Iribarren 1-3, Sapp 1-6, Lopez 1-1. SB: Ramos 8-24, Lopez 4-15, Hale 4-4, Corrales 7-13, Jimenez 1-2.
Passing—L: Aguilar 4-9-0, 57. SB: Ramos 11-19-2, 179. Lopez 2-2-0 65.
Receiving — L: Sapp 2-30, Powell 1-19, Blow 1-8. SB: E. Gonzalez 5-90, M. Gonzalez 3-73, Richardson 2-45, Lopez 1-9, Ramos 1-19, Corrales 1-8.
