Santa Barbara Overcomes Miscues to Defeat Oxnard 21-7

Quarterback Abel Renteria rushed for three touchdowns and the Santa Barbara High football team overcame a myriad of mistakes to defeat Oxnard 21-7 on Thursday night at Peabody Stadium.

The Oxnard defense was aggressive throughout and the Dons fumbled twice inside the 15-yard line leaving Santa Barbara head coach Nate Mendoza with mixed emotions postgame.

“It’s pretty good when you can play undisciplined football and get a win,” Mendoza said. “I’ll never be down about a win, but we were real close {to the shutout}, got to be disciplined.”

After Santa Barbara wide receiver Kai Maul returned the opening kickoff to midfield, the Dons mounted a 13-play, 50-yard drive that was finished off by a Renteria touchdown run on 4th-and-goal from the one-yard line with 5:54 remaining in the first quarter.

The two key plays on the drive were 12-yard passes from Renteria to sophomore Monty Lopez, the second of which came on 4th-and-5 from the Oxnard 20-yard line.

The Santa Barbara offense was held in check for the majority of the first half, but with under a minute remaining in the second quarter Renteria connected with Mault on a 15-yard pass down to the Oxnard 19-yard line. On the ensuing play, Renteria completed another pass that was fumbled, ending the threat at the Oxnard 12-yard line. 

“We know we have a tough game next week. If we play like this we’re definitely getting destroyed,” said Renteria of Santa Barbara’s next game against Ventura. “I feel like we just need good practices all week. We have an extra day because we play on Friday.”

The Dons added to their lead late in the third quarter. Winston Bartley made a spectacular 16-yard catch along the sideline that advanced Santa Barbara to the one-yard line. On the next play, Renteria lunged into the end zone increasing the Santa Barbara lead to 14-0.

After another fumble in the red zone brought an end to  another Santa Barbara drive midway through the fourth quarter. The Dons went on to increase their lead to 21-0 after a 37-yard pass from Renteria to Jack Holdren brought them down to the five-yard line. Renteria scored his third rushing touchdown of the game from five yards out with 3:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“We saw they were paying man press on two of our best receivers so we decided if you’re going to do that we’re going to throw it over the top of you,” Renteria said. 

Oxnard avoided the shoutout with a 3-yard touchdown run by Jose Hernandez with 1:58 remaining. The touchdown was the lone hiccup in what was otherwise a dominant performance on defense by Santa Barbara.

With the Victory Santa Barbara improved to 2-1 in Channel League play. Oxnard dropped to 1-1. 24 Santa Barbara seniors celebrated their senior night pregame.

Ventura 42, Dos Pueblos 0 

The Chargers fell behind 14-0 after the first quarter and 28-0 at halftime. Ventura is unbeaten in Channel League play and 4-1 overall. 

“They are physical. They flew around on defense,” said Dos Pueblos coach A.J. Pateras. “Offensively their quarterback is an elusive young man.”

Zach Gesswein returned from injury to bolster the Dos Pueblos secondary, but the Chargers are still dealing with the impact of losing starting quarterback Ryan Marsh to a season ending knee injury.