SBCC Crushes L.A. Southwest 51-0
It was a historic day for the SBCC football team on Saturday as running back Perry Martin tied a rushing record and the defense posted its first shutout in nearly 15 years in a 51-0 blowout of L.A. Southwest.
Martin, a freshman from Thousand Oaks, gained 61 yards on 11 attempts and tied a school record with four TD runs at La Playa Stadium. Tyrone Harris ran for four TDs in a 2008 game and Jerry Hughes did it for the Vaqueros in 1969. Martin has a pair of four-TD games in his first three college outings and leads the state in scoring with 48 points.
Martin was the third-leading rusher (61 yards, 11 attempts) for the Vaqueros (2-1), who ran for a season-high 308 yards on 47 carries (6.6 average). He rushed for three TDs in the first quarter (3, 1 and 2 yards) as the Vaqueros jumped out to a 27-0 lead. They led 34-0 at intermission.
Emmanuel Nwosu scored the game’s first TD on a 9-yard run at the 11:03 mark. The Vaqueros took over on the Cougar 23 after a high snap on a punt led to an 8-yard loss. Demetrius Vinson paced the SBCC rushing attack with 98 yards on 12 attempts. Cedric Cooper averaged nearly 20 yards on four rushes out of the Wildcat formation with 79 yards and a TD.
Tony Anderson led the Vaquero defense with nine tackles, a blocked field goal and a second-quarter interception. Keonimana Kahooilihala thwarted the last Cougar drive by tipping a pass to himself for an interception at his own 20.
“It was great to get a shutout after the troubles our defense had in the first few weeks,” said Anderson, a 6-4 freshman defensive back from Paris, France. “It was a great team win. This is a team game and you need to play together.”
The Vaqueros outgained the Cougars (0-3) by 300 yards, 416 to 116. It was the first shutout since Oct. 20, 2001 when Santa Barbara blanked L.A. Pierce 41-0. Defensive lineman Luigi Dorzin had six tackles, including three for loss, and Thomas Lash and Dallas Martin also recorded a half-dozen tackles.
The Vaqueros are No. 4 in the state, averaging 45.3 points a game.
Elijah Cunningham took the second-half kickoff at his own 12 and sprinted untouched for an 88-yard TD. That boosted the lead to 41-0 and lifted Cunningham into No. 7 on the state kick return chart with a 37.3-yard average. He led the state in kick returns last year with a 40.8 average and was named All-American.
“It’s so smooth when Elijah runs, you don’t realize how fast he’s going,” said coach Craig Moropoulos. “Once he got to a certain point, they weren’t going to catch him.”
