Dons quarterback Shawn Ramos breaks for open space in the first quarter. (Vince Agapito Photo)
Early in the 19th century, good old Yankee ingenuity came up with a system of interchangeable parts for machinery that became known as the “American System.”
Nordhoff High’s football Rangers are keeping that tradition alive as they continue to roll through an unbeaten season. The Rangers switched out a couple of parts Friday night and remained a perfect model of efficiency, improving to 5-0 with a 38-14 win over Santa Barbara at Peabody Stadium.
Isaac Seymour rushed for 70 yards and three touchdowns and Jake Logsdon added 139 yards and a touchdown passing as Nordhoff cruised to a 17-0 lead at halftime and a 31-0 lead midway into the third quarter.
The Dons defense makes a stop in the second quarter.
But Nordhoff also got a big game from Micah Thompson, who was filling in for injured star safety and receiver Sean Bettles. Thompson returned a punt 42 yards for a touchdown and grabbed three passes for 59 yards. He was also solid defensively as the Rangers kept the Dons thoroughly in check for the first three quarters.
“We were missing a couple of key guys but the guys who stepped in for them did a great job,” said Nordhoff coach Tony Henney.”We wanted to be a machine, do what we have been doing…get to the ball, get turnovers, grind it out, and I think we did that.”
Nordhoff took advantage of two lost fumbles by Santa Barbara and an interception and 38-yard runback by Luis Espinoza, sacked Santa Barbara quarterback Shawn Ramos twice and recorded three other tackles for losses in holding the Dons to just 72 yards rushing on 27 carries.
“I thought Brian Sandefur, our defensive end had a great game,” said Henney. “And Sean Collins, our offensive left guard was really getting off the ball on offense.”
Nordhoff opened the scoring on a 20-yard run by Seymour and Logsdon connected with Jordan Morrison for a 36-yard pass down the right sideline. The Rangers made it 14-0 on a 4-yard run by Seymour after an 8-play, 51-yard drive and tacked on a 27-yard field goal near the end of the first half and moving the ball 80 yards in 11 plays.
Thornton returned the Dons’ first punt of the second half for a score to make it 24-0, breaking a tackle before slipping to his left and outracing the coverage team to the end zone.
Espinoza’s interception return set up Seymour for an 11-yard score with 7:35 to play in the quarter, capping a 1-play drive against a clearly demoralized Santa Barbara team.
In addition to losing two fumbles and throwing two interceptions, the Dons committed 11 penalties for 105 yards in losses as the teams combined for nearly a dozen personal foul flags.
“I can’t blame it on youth,” said Santa Barbara coach Jaime Melgoza. “We had five sophomores starting on offense and about the same on defense and these guys need to learn that some of the things they did when they were younger, they can’t do at this level. But discipline comes back to coaching and that’s something we have to work on.”
Santa Barbara, 1-4, got off the deck in the fourth quarter behind some big plays by Bradford Jellison and the persistence of quarterback Shawn Ramos. Jellison grabbed an interception and returned it 30 yards to the Nordhoff 8 to set up a 1-yard plunge into the middle of the Rangers by Ramos that just edged him across the goal line. Jellison also had a couple of first down catches to help another drive that ended with a 23-yard pass from Ramos to Emilio Gonzalez.
But, by that time, Nordhoff was more than in control. A 14-yard pass from Logsdon to Keegan Shirck completed their scoring, along with five PATs by Moore.
Logsdon finished 8-of-14 for 139 yards but also had two interceptions. A largely methodical ground game, with no run longer than 11 yards, totaled 116 yards on 25 carries. Santa Barbara was led statistically by Ramos, who completed 15 of 26 passes for 126 yards.
NORDHOFF 38, SANTA BARBARA 14
Nordhoff 14 3 14 7—38
Santa Barbara 00 00 00 14—14
First quarter
N: Seymour 30 run (Moore kick) 8:20.
N: Seymour 4 run (Moore kick) 3:56.
Second quarter
N_FG Moore 27, :33.
Third quarter
N_Thornton 42 punt return (Moore kick) 9:43.
N: Seymour 11 run (Moore kick) 7:35.
Fourth quarter
SB_Ramos 1 run (Medina kick) 10:56.
N_K.Shirck 14 pass from Logsdon (Moore kick) 6:11.
SB_E.Gonzalez 23 pass from Ramos (Medina kick) 1:31.
TEAM TOTALS N SB
First downs 13 13
Rushes-yards 25-116 27-72
Passing yards 139 116
Comp-Att-Int 8-14-2 15-21-2
Sacked-yards lost 1-2 2-15
Punts-avg. 2-26 4-36
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-2
Penalties-yards 9-69 11-105
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — N: Seymour 14-70, Munoz 7-27, Stanley 1-5, Morrison 2-16, Logsdon 1-minus-2. SB: Ramos 14-36, Hale 10-17, Jellison 4-15, Galindo 1-4, Jimenez 1-0.
PASSING — N: Logsdon 8-14-2-139. SB: Ramos 15-21-2-126.
RECEIVING — N: Shirck 2-34, Morrison 2-46, Thornton 3-59, Munoz 1-0. SB: E.Gonzaelz 3-59, Bisquera 1-2, M.Gonzalez 5-40, Alleraga 1-13, Jellison 3-17, Hale 2-15..
MISSED FIELD GOALS — None
TEAM RECORDS — N 5-0, SB 1-4.
