Buena quarterback Martin Mijares lines up behind center Cade Johnson, with running back Mason Beling waiting for the snap. (Photos by Wade Carr)
Buena’s Noah Martinez nearly doubled his touchdown count for the season on Friday night by recording four scores in a 49-0 rout of Santa Barbara High in a Channel League game.
Martinez scored on four short runs and totaled 209 yards rushing on a busy night for the Bulldog junior. Martinez, who missed his last game, now has nine touchdowns in six games.
Santa Barbara’s Cheroke Cunningham takes a handoff from Eli Hale, who played just three snaps before getting knocked out of the game with a sprained ankle.
“All week long we knew that we were going to pound it down their throat,” Martinez said after the game.
Martinez took 26 carries in the first half alone and gained 140 yards.
“That’s the strength of our offense is to run the football,” said Bulldogs head coach Tim Gutierrez. “We do everything behind that and we have a great offensive line that did a great job tonight.”
When not running the ball, the O-line gave Buena quarterback Martin Mijares plenty of time to operate. Mijares threw two touchdown passes and ran in another as the Bulldogs handed Santa Barbara its first shutout loss since 2010.
“Everyone had their head in the game. We played to our great potential,” Mijares said. “We did have some little mistakes we need to work on during next practice, but overall we played very, very well. Everyone, as a team especially.”
Buena was able to take advantage of Santa Barbara’s depleted line on both sides of the ball. The Dons’ Cheroke Cunningham didn’t have much space to run and sophomore quarterback Brent Peus didn’t have much time to throw. The opposite was true for Martinez and Mijares.
“Right now it’s hard. We got thumped,” said Dons head coach Doug Caines. “I think up front we just absolutely were overmatched. And that was pretty evident pretty quickly. We need to find a better to protect the quarterback and to protect the run game.”
Santa Barbara finally threatened to score in the fourth quarter. Peus completed passes to Jonah Iwanaga, Daniel Vallin, and a long 34-yarder to Ruben Prado. Four passes to the end zone then fell incomplete as Buena kept its shutout intact.
“Defense was lights out,” Gutierrez said. “They played assignment football. They have some great athletes over there who can make a difference in ball games, and they’ve come back in some games this year so we were well aware of that.”
After a bye week, Buena now stands at 1-0 in league play while Santa Barbara falls to 0-2.
BUENA 49, SANTA BARBARA 0
Buena ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?21 14 14 0 – 49
Santa Barbara ?0 ?0 ?0 ?0 – ?0FIRST QUARTER
B – 8:08 (Martinez 3-yard run; PAT good)
B – 3:55 (Bolton 25-yard catch from Mijares; PAT good)
B – 1:04 (Martinez 1-yard run; PAT good)SECOND QUARTER
B – 7:50 (Bennett 24-yard catch from Mijares; PAT good)
B – 1:45 (Mijares 6-yard run; PAT good)THIRD QUARTER
B – 9:43 (Martinez 4-yard run; PAT good)
B – 5:25 (Martinez 5-yard run; PAT good)
