It wasn’t pretty, but Santa Barbara High’s football team did enough to win its first football game of the season and the first for coach JT Stone.
Hugo Ronces kicked a 33-yard field goal with 3:20 remaining in the third quarter and the Dons pounced on the football after a bad snap on a potential game-winning field goal by Channel Islands in the final seconds to preserve a 10-8 victory on Friday night in south Oxnard.
“It’s a win, an ugly performance,” said Stone, whose team was hurt by penalties.
“It was one of those nights where we continually shoot ourselves in the foot. The game doesn’t reflect the final score. We should have put more points on the board,” said Stone.
Clinging to the two-point lead, the Dons drove to the Channel Islands 3. The drive stalled and they attempted a field-goal. Channel Islands blocked it with two minutes remaining. Channel Islands put together a long drive and reached the Santa Barbara 9. The Raiders set up for a field goal but never kicked it due to the bad snap.
Santa Barbara took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 16-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brent Peus to Daniel Vallin.
In the second quarter, a 52-yard Channel Islands punt pinned the Dons back to their 3. Daniel Woods rushed in and tackled Peus in the end zone for a safety, making it a 7-2 game with 7:22 remanning in the first half.
The Raiders grabbed an 8-7 lead on an Angel Chavira 21-yard TD pass reception. They failed on 2-point conversion with 2:37 left in the first half.
Peus completed 19 of 31 passes for 189 yards. Vallin caught four passes for 63 yards.
The Dons’ defense came up with some big plays. Russell Enholm blocked a punt and Carter Soto recovered a fumble to set up the winning field goal.
