John Uribe tied a school record with five touchdown tosses Saturday night and SBCC topped Santa Monica 35-28 for its second straight APC football victory.
The Vaqueros (3-3, 2-0) are tied for first with L.A. Pierce (4-2, 2-0), their next opponent on Saturday, Oct. 16, at La Playa Stadium. Pierce outlasted Glendale 42-40 on Saturday.
Uribe completed 16-of-27 passes for 292 yards and five touchdowns in the game at Santa Monica. He averaged 18.2 yards on his completions. Art Gonzalez, who’s been catching passes from Uribe for more than a decade, had five receptions for 140 yards and three TDs, measuring 29, 58 and 45 yards.
Chad Toocheck added six catches for 89 yards and a TD.
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“They like to play a lot of Cover Zero with no safety in the back and we took advantage of that with play-action,” noted Uribe, who tied Nick Acciani’s 2006 record. “Our running backs ran hard, the offensive line did a great job and our receivers got open. When they’re open, I just throw the ball and they make the plays.
“The big thing is we’re 2-0 in conference and we’ve got to keep it rolling.”
Christopher Hoose recovered a Corsair fumble on the first play of the game and Uribe promptly hit Gonzalez with a 29-yard touchdown for a quick 7-0 lead. Santa Monica (2-3, 0-1) answered with a 60-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter to tie the game.
On the next possession, Uribe directed a 62-yard march in seven plays, culminating in a 22-yard scoring pass to Toocheck, who made a diving catch near the right sideline.
The Vaqueros got the ball back when Hoose stopped Benjamin Irwin-Crayton for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-1 at the SBCC 37. On second down, Uribe faked a handoff and hit a wide-open Gonzalez for a 58-yard TD with 9:32 left in the second quarter.
Chaz Dalton’s third PAT kick gave the visitors a 21-7 halftime lead.
Michael Douglas reached 100 yards in rushing for the third straight game. He had exactly 100 yards on 17 carries for a 5.9 average.
“They pretty much sold-out to stop the run,” said coach Craig Moropoulos. “We were ready for it and went over the top several times. John threw the ball very well and Art and Chad made some great catches.
“Plus our defense stepped up and played well again.”
Freshman linebacker Manny Hernandez had another huge game with 16 tackles, including five solo and 2.5 for 14 yards in losses. The former San Marcos High star also averaged nearly 45 yards on five punts.
The Vaqueros lost two key defensive players in the first quarter. Linebacker Sam Shipley, who leads the state in tackles, went down with a hamstring pull and defensive end David Izebere injured his knee. Marcus Griffin filled in for Shipley and finished with 10 tackles and a sack.
Uribe hit Chris Kordakis with a 20-yard scoring strike at the 9:18 mark of the third quarter. The Corsairs pulled within six, 27-21, on an 80-yard drive, capped by Torrence Whalum’s 6-yard run.
SBCC needed just three plays to cover 67 yards. Juston Leverette ran 17 yards on a reverse and Uribe then connected with Gonzalez on a 45-yard post pattern for the TD. Gonzalez scored a 2-point PAT on an end-around and the Vaqueros led 35-21 with 3:15 to go in the third.
The Corsairs scored their final TD on a 3-yard pass that capped a 15-play, 70-yard march with 1:27 to play.
Santa Barbara won the turnover battle 4-1, recovering two fumbles and getting interceptions from Enrique Thomas and Matthew Arve.
“We made some big plays when we had to,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Santarosa. “We just have to eliminate the (opponents’) big plays, that’s what’s getting us right now.”
