Hickson passes for four TDs as Vaqueros blast West L.A. 56-7

Gerald Hickson passed for 168 yards and four touchdowns on Saturday and SBCC's defense shut down West L.A. in a 56-7 football rout in Culver City.

The Vaqueros (1-1) piled up 483 yards and held the Wildcats (0-2) to 238. The disparity was even greater in first downs (26-9 for SBCC) and rushing yards (237 to 81).

Emmanuel Nwosu, a sophomore running back from Dos Pueblos High, racked up a career-high 144 yards on 18 carries for an 8.0 average. The Vaqueros led 21-0 at halftime. Nwosu's 4-yard touchdown burst up the middle capped a 58-yard drive and made it 35-0 midway through the third quarter.

Nwosu also caught four passes for 58 yards, giving him 202 yards of offense.

Hickson, a 6-1 freshman from Buffalo, N.Y., completed 12-of-20 passes for 168 yards. He had four scoring tosses of 5, 18, 9 and 43 yards with one interception. Donald Lambert caught five passes for 84 yards and two TDs.

The 56 points are tied for No. 3 on the Vaqueros' all-time scoring chart. They missed the all-time record of 63 (in a 63-9 win over Ventura in 1996) by seven points.

It was quite a turnaround for the Vaqueros: 87 points to be exact. They lost last week's season opener to Ventura by 38 (44-6) and won Saturday's game by 49 points.

"Last week was a rude awakening," said Hickson. "Ventura is a good team but we just weren't all there. We really hunkered down this week and focused on what we should do instead of what the other team should do.

"We ran the ball really well. Manny was just bouncing off people. When you run the ball well, it opens up the passing game."

Cody Perry added 52 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Marshawn Davenport forced a fumble late in the third period and Jose Romero returned it 28 yards to the West L.A. 12. On first down, Perry cruised into the end zone for a TD that capped a 21-point third quarter and stretched the lead to 42-0.

The offensive line opened holes all day for the Vaquero runners. The line consists of center Wyatt Gardner, guards Taylor Ludwig and Jake Tourtillotte, right tackle Aaron Jackobs and left tackle Gerardo Orihuela-Ochoa.

After holding the Wildcats to a three-and-out on the first series, the Vaqueros covered 72 yards in 11 plays and took a 7-0 lead when Hickson tossed a five-yard TD to tight end Cody Haines.

The defense forced another three-and-out and the Vaqueros took over on their own 45. Nwosu ripped off  27 yards on first down and one play later, Hickson pump-faked a pass, then lobbed the ball to Lambert for an 18-yard score and a 14-0 lead. Martin Ahlmstroem,  a freshman from Sweden, kicked the second of his six PATs.

Abraham Barraza recovered a WLA fumble at the Wildcat 23 with 5:13 to go in the first half. On second-and-goal from the 9, Hickson threw a swing pass to Jeremiah Wright and he ran in untouched for a 21-0 lead.

"The No. 1 thing was our defense," noted coach Craig Moropoulos. "They did a great job of shutting down a pretty good offense, which scored 30 points last week."

Defensive lineman Chayvis Curry led the team in tackles for the second straight week with nine. Dannie Williams had eight and safety Houston Little and RJ Thorne had six apiece. Little, a 5-11 freshman from Red Oak, Texas, does it all for the Vaqueros, playing safety, returning kicks and he's also the long snapper.

Little recovered a muffed punt near the end of the third quarter and the Vaqueros drove 34 yards in nine plays under the direction of quarterback Joshua Evans. He completed passes of 10 and nine yards to Seth Fletscher, then ran it in himself from a yard out to make it 49-0 on the fifth play of the final quarter.

"Our offense really clicked today and I'm proud of the guys," Moropoulos added. "I'm sure we were a lot better on third-down conversions and in the red zone today."

The Vaqueros were 8-17 (47 percent) on third-down conversions after going 1-13 last week.

SBCC travels to L.A. Southwest on Saturday for a 6 p.m. contest.