The offense is still a work in progress for the Santa Barbara High football team.
That was evident in Friday’s season opener against Oxnard. The Dons were unable to complete the big pass plays down field, while the defense held up for three quarters before wearing down against a punishing Oxnard rushing attack in a 28-6 loss in the season opener for both teams at Peabody Stadium on Friday night.
“We’re going back to the drawing board and work on our offense a little bit,” Santa Barbara’s JT Stone said after his debut as coach of the Dons. “We got to be sound. Guys have to do their jobs. If they do their jobs, we’ll be OK.”
Oxnard’s big offensive line did its job for running back Raymond Caldera. It opened up holes for the tailback and he delivered big time, rushing for 195 yards on 23 carries and scoring on runs of 13 and 56 yards. Caldera also made a huge play on defense, stripping the ball from a Santa Barbara receiver and taking it for a 53-yard touchdown.
“He’s a throwback kind of football player,” Oxnard coach Mark Beckham said of the powerful running back. “The line did a good job giving him the room to run.”
“It’s all in the line. That’s my family, they are my brothers,” Caldera said. “They work hard.”
Stone was impressed.
“He’s a helluva of a running back. We put a pounding on him for three quarters. At one point he started rubbing his legs, and we wore him down. But when you compete at a high level, he did exactly what his coaches asked him to do. He ran hard all night, and that’s what his coaches asked him to do.”
Caldera and the Yellowjackets made it look easy on the first series of the game as the rolled through the Santa Barbara defense for a touchdown. Caldera finished the 72-yard, six-play drive with a 13-yard run.
Santa Barbara’s defense tightened after that and kept Oxnard off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter.
The Dons offense, however, struggled to find its groove. Quarterback Brent Peus completed 17 of 33 passes for 152 yards and a touchdown, but he was picked off twice by Oxnard’s J Dunham and misfired on long pass plays.
“Brent had a OK game but he has to go back to the drawing board,” Stone said. “We got to be fundamentally sound and we got to do what the coaches ask to do and just compete.”
Peus’ touchdown pass was a 21-yarder to Chris Jellison with 2:47 left in the fourth quarter.
After Oxnard scored on its opening drive, the score remained at 7-0 until the fourth quarter.
Santa Barbara forced three turnovers — Russell Enholm and Alex Guadarrama intercepted passes and Augusto Cisneros recovered a fumble — but it couldn’t capitalize. Oxnard’s defense held the Dons to three and out after each giveaway.
The Yellowjackets scored their second touchdown on an 80-yard drive. The biggest play of the drive was a 19-yard pass completion from quarterback Dalton Pagano to Ellis Krupa on third and 7 from the Santa Barbara 33. Caldera followed with runs of 11 ,7 and 20 yards to put the ball at the 10. After a 5-yard Santa Barbara penalty, running back Max Vasquez got the call and bolted into the end zone for a 14-0 lead.
“I can only ask so much from our defense. They carried us all the way through the third quarter,“ said Stone.
The Dons came out throwing on their next possession, and Peus completed a pass to Jellison on the left sideline. As Caldera came up for the tackle, he stripped the ball and took off running the other way, 53 yards for a touchdown and a 21-0 lead with 7:11 to play.
With Santa Barbara’s defense tiring, Caldera broke through the line and ran 56 yards for his third touchdown.
Santa Barbara returns to Peabody Stadium next Friday to play St. Joseph.
NONLEAGUE
OXNARD 28, SANTA BARBARA 6
OXNARD 7 0 0 21 — 28
SANTA BARBARA 0 0 0 6 — 6
FIRST QUARTER
O — Caldera 13 run, Garcia kick
FOURTH QUARTER
O — Vasquez 5 run, Garcia kick
O — Caldera 53 fumble return, Garcia kick
O —Caldera 56 run, Garcia kick
SB — Jellison 21 pass from Peus, bad snap
O SB
First downs 14 13
Rushes-Yards 36-247 23-63
Passing 58 152
Comp-Att-Int 5-13-2 17-33-3
Punts 4-27.2 5-31
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards 8-98 9-54
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Oxnard: Caldera 23-195, Vasquez 8-38, Pagano 4-9, Tinoco 1-5, Cuen 1-8. Santa Barbara: Garcia 6-43, I. Figueroa 2-14, No. 39 8-18, D. Figueroa 1 (minus 7), Peus 7-(minus 5).
PASSING — Oxnard: Pagano 5-13-2—48. Santa Barbara: Peus 17-33-2—147.
RECEIVING — Oxnard: Caldera 2-8 Tinoco 1-29, Krupa 1-19, Barboza 1-2. Santa Barbara: Vallin 6-33, Jellison 4-40, Brace 2-44, Garcia 1-10, Ebeling 1-7, Davidson 1-7, I. Figueroa 1-7.
RECORDS — Oxnard 1-0; Santa Barbara 0-1
