Antelope Valley rallies past Vaqueros, 41-28

A confluence of injuries and a talented quarterback were too much for SBCC to overcome on Saturday night in a 41-28 football loss at Antelope Valley in Lancaster.

Santa Barbara won the second quarter 28-7 to take a 28-14 halftime lead. The Marauders (5-2, 2-0 APL) scored 27 unanswered points in the second half to improve to 4-0 at home.

The Vaqueros (5-2, 1-1) had their five-game win streak snapped and failed to score at least 40 points for the first time this year.

Blake Shepherd racked up 358 total yards and five touchdowns (3 rushing, 2 passing) to lead the Marauder attack. He rushed 15 times for 106 yards and completed 14-of-30 passes for 252 yards and TDs of 74 and 30 yards.

Cole Starnes ran 17 times for 110 yards, helping the Marauders outrush the Vaqueros 274 to 221 yards. AVC won the total yardage battle, 526-315.

The Vaqueros were already missing top running back Perry Martin and quarterback Joshua Lindman, who are out for the season with injuries. Quarterback Noah Holle, who split time with Lindman in the first 3½ games, was injured in last week's stirring 43-40 comeback win at Hancock and played about a third of Saturday's game. Tim Milliken made his first start at QB for the Vaqueros and completed 8-19 passes for 61 yards.

SBCC was also without the services of No. 1 receiver Jason-Matthew Sharsh and defensive back Rhomel Fields, a pair of talented kick returners who were sidelined by injuries last week. All-State offensive tackle Isaac McClain returned from injury and recovered a Vaquero fumble to keep a scoring drive alive late in the second quarter.

"It just comes down to blocking and tackling, catching and throwing and us keeping the ball," said coach Craig Moropoulos. "We jumped out to a lead, then Noah got hurt. That's when you have to rise up and we just didn't do that.

"Give their quarterback credit, he's a live wire and he's very talented."

AVC took a 7-0 lead, driving 70 yards on its first possession and scoring on a 2-yard run by Shepherd.

The Vaqueros scored two TDs in 10 seconds early in the second quarter. Nakota Shepard-Creer made his fourth interception and returned it 89 yards to tie the game. On the ensuing kickoff, Trevor Vill forced Blake Verrett to fumble and defensive lineman Evan Defer returned it 12 yards to put the Vaqueros ahead 14-7 just 64 seconds into the second quarter.

Shepherd hit Verrett on a short pass near the right sideline and he avoided several tacklers on the way to a 74-yard touchdown with 3:45 to go before halftime.

The Vaqueros regained the lead 21-14 on a 38-yard TD run by Demetrius Vinson at the 2:29 mark. David Blevins, a sophomore linebacker from Dos Pueblos High, intercepted a pass and the Vaqueros drove 61 yards in 1:25, capped by a 13-yard pass from Holle to Jonathan Licea with six seconds left in the half.

Holle made a play-action fake to Cedric Cooper and Licea was all alone in the middle of the end zone to give the Vaqueros a 28-14 halftime advantage.

Emmanuel Nwosu led the SBCC ground attack, rushing nine times for 93 yards and a 10.3 average. Vinson added 70 yards on 18 carries and Cooper, running mostly out of the Wildcat formation, had 50 yards.

AVC drove 86 yards on the first possession of the third quarter. On fourth down, Shepherd threw a 30-yard pass to the right sideline near the goal line and SBCC's Dominique Shelton had great coverage but Donte Ross managed to reach over him for the TD catch that made it 28-21.

AVC was 6-for-6 on fourth-down conversions and the Vaqueros were 0-4.

Holle was injured on the Vaqueros' next possession with 10:20 to go in the third quarter and never returned. The Vaqueros went for it on fourth-and-2 from their own 43 but Vinson only gained a yard.

The Marauders put together a run-dominated 12-play, 56-yard drive that culminated in a 1-yard TD run from shotgun formation by the speedy Shepherd. That tied the game at 28 with 3:01 to go in the third quarter.

The Marauders went ahead 34-28 with 11:23 to go in the game on an 8-yard Shepherd run that capped an 84-yard drive. The big play was a 42-yard bomb from Shepherd to Carlon Smith Jr. Mark Berrera missed the PAT kick.

"In the third quarter, we let them get too much momentum," Moropoulos stated. "It was Tim's first start and he worked hard but there were some things that we just didn't have that we did have in earlier games."

The Vaqueros will host Citrus (4-3, 1-1) on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Owls beat L.A. Pierce 48-3 on Saturday.