Preview: Desert Football Heads To Santa Barbara

A winning streak will come to an end this week. It will either be Desert's 2 consecutive wins or Santa Barbara's 3 game streak. Desert heads to Santa Barbara to get that answer. Desert has needed to come down after their dramatic last second win over Antelope Valley last week to prepare for the Vaqueros who are putting up 461 yards of offense a game.  This is led by a four headed monster rushing attack. SBCC has four guys with over 220 yards of rushing on the season.

Perry Martin is their top tailback, but he did not play in Santa Barbara's 41-6 rout of El Camino Compton Center last week. It is unknown if he will be available for the Game against Desert. If not, the Vaqueros may look to Emmanuel Nwosu who was dynamic last week. Nwosu only touched the ball 7 times from the backfield, but racked up 95 yards and a touchdown. He has 275 yards on the season. Demetrius Vinson also had his way with the Compton Defense. He received 15 carries for 148 yards and a score last week. Cedric Cooper carried 11 times for 78 yards and 2 scores.

Santa Barbara's quarterbacks weren't called on to use their arms too much, but they were efficient when they went to the air. Noah Holle completed 8-12 passes for 101 yards and threw for 2 scores while not throwing an interception. Joshua Lindman completed 3-4 passes for 17 yards and a pick. Jacob Ortale hauled in both touchdown passes from Holle. Holle is completeing 58.5% of his passes this year, but is only averaging 85yards per game. Lindman has complete 61.8% of his passes for 113.5 yards per game. Both quarterbacks have seen action in all of SBCC's games.

For Desert, they are gaining confidence every week. After two highly contested losses against state ranked teams, Desert has won back to back games against West LA and Antelope Valley. De'Abrie Smith has won Conference Player of the Week the last two weeks in the American Mountain Conference for his part in the Roadrunners success. In the last two weeks, Smith has averaged 277.5 yards through the air while throwing for 4 TD's to only one interception. He has completed 67% of his passes during this time. 

Smith has spread the wealth around with his receivers. 12 receivers have caught a pass from Smith this year with 4 of them having at least 100 yards on the season. Reginald Macon and Myles Goulbourne have been his primary targets this year. Macon has 27 receptions for 279 yards and Goulbourne has 23 catches for 211 yards including the game winning 31 yard reception last week. Samuel Gomez is emerging as another threat downfield. Gomez has played in two games this year and has hauled in 8 receptions for 103 yards. 

In the backfield, Anthony Ellison continues to keep defenses from just playing the pass. The shifty back has rushed for nearly 70 yards per game this year and has found the end zone 3 times. Kamone Best has also added 106 yards on the ground for the Roadrunners and has added 2 sores on the year.

Desert's defensive unit has been much improved from a year ago. Egypt Johnson leads the way with 22 tackles. Corey Dalton has 3 picks on the years including 2 last week against Antelope.

Look for first and second downs to be big for the Roadrunner defense this week. They will need to stuff that Vaqueros running game early and turn them into a passing team on 3rd and long. If they can do that look for the Roadrunner's defense to turn it over to the potent offense. If SBCC is able to sucessful execute the ground and pound offense it will wear down the front of that Roadrunner Defense. Time of possession will be a big stat to look at this week. 

Santa Barbara 3-1

Desert 2-2

Leaders

Passing

COD

De'Abrie Smith 81-132 783 yards 5TDs

Santa Barbara

Joshua Lindman 34-55 454 Yards 3TDs

Noah Holle 24-41 340 Yards 5TDs

Rushing

COD

Anthony Ellison 47 Carries 276 Yards 3TDs

Santa Barbara

Perry Martin 50 Carries 277 Yards 7TDs

Receiving

COD

Reginald Macon 27 Receptions 279 Yards 0TDs

Myles Goulbourne 23 Receptions 211 Yards 2TDs

Santa Barbara

Jason Mathew Sharsh 20 Receptions 305 Yards 2TDs