Dominant defense and balanced offense lifted the San Marcos High flag football team to a 41-0 victory over rival Santa Barbara on Thursday night.
With the win, the Royals improved to 13-3 overall and 4-1 in Channel League play. A showdown against an über-talented Ventura team is looming on Tuesday.
“In a rivalry game, you never know what’s going to happen. There are a lot of emotions involved,” said San Marcos co-head coach Walter Bazylewicz. “The girls were focused during the week of practice, and for us, when we have a good week of practice, it usually shows on game night.”
After sitting out the previous game due to sickness, San Marcos star quarterback Victoria Aldana returned to action and led the Royals down the field on their opening possession of the game. However, it was Peyton Sperling who connected with Drea Obispo on a gadget play for the first touchdown of the game from seven yards out with 3:07 remaining in the first quarter.
Aldana added the one-point conversion with a short pass to Mia Richmond, which gave San Marcos a 7-0 lead.
After a promising drive that stalled in the red zone on its first possession that was highlighted by a 43-yard pass from Laila Hernandez to Shea Gannon, disaster struck for the Santa Barbara offense on its second possession as Rylie Cook stepped in front of a Hernandez pass and returned it 35 yards to the end zone with 1:41 remaining in the first quarter. A successful one-point conversion pass from Aldana to Rio Chesluck extended the San Marcos lead to 14-0.
“That really kind of made us feel like we can relax and play,” said Bazylewicz of Cook’s interception. “When you take the nerves out of it and emotions out, it’s a lot easier to play.”
San Marcos tacked on two more touchdowns in the first half on a five-yard pass from Aldana to Chesluk and a 28-yard run by Peyton Sperling to take a 27-0 lead into the break at halftime.
In the second half, an interception by freshman Piper Smith set up a one-yard touchdown run by Chesluk that extended the San Marcos lead to 34-0. The Royals closed the scoring with a 10-yard pass from Aldana to Chesluk and Piper Smith connected with fellow freshman Maya Llewellyn on the one-point conversion pass.
For the Dons, a tough loss against one of the best teams in the CIF Southern Section will hopefully lead to brighter days ahead.
“We had a chance early to make a statement and couldn’t punch it in; we were kind of reeling from there a little bit,” said Santa Barbara coach Travis Manach. “You see what works out there, and maybe you can steal some of that because obviously there are a lot of good teams in our league doing good things.”
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