There was a party atmosphere in the air on what may have been the first Friday night football game in SBCC history.
A crowd of 3,015, one of the largest in years, watched the Vaqueros jump out to a 19-14 halftime lead, thanks in part to a school-record 99-yard kickoff return by Kyle Brown. Hancock dominated the second half by a 27-0 count on the way to a 41-19 victory in the season opener for both teams.
The Bulldogs, ranked No. 18 in the state, racked up 326 yards and five touchdowns on the ground while holding the Vaqueros to 61 rushing yards. Cameron Artis-Payne had 153 yards on 20 carries (7.7 average) and three touchdowns. Chris Barnwell added 115 yards and two scores.
Bulldog quarterback Brandon Jeffries completed 12-of-15 passes for 218 yards, including a 54-yard TD to Nicko Shellow with 7:59 to play.
SBCC used a hurry-up offense to scored three first-half TDs. Brown, a freshman running back from Scottsdale, Ariz., caught a kickoff at his own 1 and sprinted 99 yards up the left sideline to tie the game at 7 with 7:07 to go in the opening quarter.
Jared Evans connected with tight end Tyson Heller on a 30-yard TD pass three minutes later, giving SBCC its biggest lead at 13-7. After Hancock went 65 yards to take a 14-13 lead on a 2-yard TD by Barnwell, the Vaqueros went 86 yards in seven plays, needing just 2:14 to score.
The TD came on a trick play. Kyle Brown took a handoff, then handed to receiver Anthony Fullman on a reverse. Fullman hit a wide-open Steven Jerome for a 25-yard score that made it 19-14 with 1:21 to go in the first half. A 2-point PAT pass attempt missed the mark.
“We had good confidence in the first half,” noted coach Craig Moropoulos. “That’s the most success we’ve had on offense in a while. We’ve got some guys who can make plays.”
Hancock won the yardage battle 544-247, including 289-53 in the second half.
“We missed some tackles and dropped some balls,” said Moropoulos. “We had a lot of success in the first half, then that safety kind of took the wind out of our sails.”
The Vaqueros trailed by just a touchdown, 26-19, heading into the final period. On the second play of the fourth quarter, SBCC snapped the ball over the punter’s head and out of the end zone for a safety on fourth-and-11 from its own 24.
Hancock marched 77 yards in nine plays, capped by a 22-yard run by Artis-Payne that stretched the lead to 35-19.
Morgan Nevin, a freshman linebacker from Truckee, Calif., had a nice debut for the Vaqueros with 18 tackles (three solo). Olefemi Odaibo added 11 tackles. Safety Mitch Nelson, one of the top tacklers on last year’s team, had seven tackles before leaving with an injury on the second play of the third quarter.
Evans, a freshman QB from Philadelphia, completed 15-of-32 passes for 139 yards with two interceptions. Evans also rushed 11 times for 40 yards. Fullman caught nine passes for 32 yards.
SBCC travels to East L.A. next Saturday for a 6 p.m. contest.
