Rio Mesa at Santa Barabara Game

Rio Mesa Spartans (1-1)

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Santa Barbara Dons (1-2)

The Spartans loaded up the bus for the 40 mile ride north to Santa Barbara, the beautiful California coastal city dubbed the "American Riviera" for last Friday night's contest.

The Dons, owners of one of the most storied high school football histories in Southern California, have 5 C.I.F. titles and 20 Channel League championships to their credit. In recent years though, the Dons have fallen upon hard times.

Still, after our frustrating loss at Ventura last week, the Spartans needed to get back on track quickly!

Thus, we entered the game with the mindset that a proud Dons squad and a re-dedicated Spartans team would make for a good night of football.

HERE COME THE SPARTANS!!!

The game got underway with a wonderful sunset but some clouds were in the distance. They would play a part in the game later in the evening.

The Spartans had a tough First Half as the offense could not move the ball consistenly and the Dons held a huge advantage in the field position game.

The Rio Mesa defense played well with their backs to the wall but surrendered two Second Quarter field goals of 21 and 36 yards to fall behind 0-6 just before the intermission.

Davonte Nunnery for SIX!!!

Just before the half ended, our Senior QB Trent Thornton (14/25, 225 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) hit Sophomore WR Davonte Nunnery with this 28 yard TD strike. Davonte caught a total of five balls for 75 yards on the night.

The PAT hit the upright, keeping the score knotted 6-6 at the Half.

RB Tanner Wrout Busting Loose

Tanner only had 4 carries but he did gain 42 yards. One of his Second Half runs was extremely physical and really ignited the offense.

Sack by OLB Mitch Haerterich

Mitch has put together a great start to his Senior season. Not showy, he lets his play speak for him. Now that's very Old School and I happen to be very old so Mitch is one of my favorite players on the team.

Against the Dons, Mitch was in on 11 tackles including two very key quarterback sacks.

Another Sack

This time it was #11 MLB Tanner Wrout on the sack with #8 senior DE Christian McNair applying the pressure as well.

Defensively, Tanner had a spectacular night participating in 15 tackles.

Unfortunately, Santa Barbara pushed across a TD late in the Third Quarter from 15 yards out to lead 13-6 as we entered the final stanza.

Then the lightning hit.

Ten seconds into the final period with the Spartans facing a 1st and 10 at the 15 yard line going in, the thunder and lightning were ruled by the officials to be too close to the stadium for the safety of the players and spectators. Thus, the game was halted for about 30 minutes until the storm blew out to sea.

Field Goal Block

Santa Barbara had an excellent kicker but we forced him into two very long attempts in the second half which produced zero points for the Dons.

After the weather delay, we had to settle for a 27 yard field goal from our kicker, Tim Dominguez to narrow the score to 13-9 in favor of Santa Barbara.

Finally, on our last possesion of the game, the Spartan offense came to life with a 10 play, 88 yard drive to paydirt. Senior RB Jordan Nunnery finished the pilgrimmage with a 7 yard TD scamper with 2:41 left in the game. Rio Mesa had its first lead in the last two games 16-13 but could our defense hold again?

Yes We Did!!!

Senior Falcon #3 James Turner came up with a huge interception to seal the victory on a night where the defense led the way. James was in on 13 tackles and played perhaps the best game of his career.

For the night the Red and Black defense was on the field for 63 Santa Barbara snaps and held the Dons to 156 total yards and 13 points.

Well done D!!!

Week #3 Results: BOLD = RM Opponent

Rio Mesa 16 - Santa Barbara 13

San Marcos 24 - Hueneme 0

Ventura 35 - Nordhoff 20

Lompoc 23 - Dos Pueblos 0

Oxnard 42 - Buena 35

Golden Valley 17 - Channel Islands 10

Canyon 52 - Camarillo 28

BYE: Pacifica

Week #4 Games: BOLD = RM Opponent

Friday, September 30th

Dos Pueblos (0-4) at Rio Mesa (2-1)

Capistrano Valley (0-4) at San Marcos (1-3)

Ventura (4-0) at Camarillo (1-2)

Santa Barbara (1-3) at Nordhoff (1-3)

Pacifica (2-1) at Buena (0-4)

Downey (1-3) at Oxnard (1-2)

Santa Paula (0-3) at Hueneme (0-4)

BYE: Channel Islands (3-1)

Pacific View League Standings

Channel Islands 0-0 PVL, 3-1 overall

Pacifica 0-0, 2-1

Rio Mesa 0-0, 2-1

Camarillo 0-0, 1-2

Oxnard 0-0, 1-2

Hueneme 0-0, 0-4

California Golden Bears (3-0)

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Washington Huskies (2-1)

This was the PAC-12 opener for both squads as dreams of Bowl bids still danced in everyone's heads.

Husky QB Keith Price

Price had a tremendous day passing for 292 yards and 3 TDs on a highly efficient 19 for 25 day. He also rushed for 21 yards on 7 carries.

UW WR Devin Aguilar

Aguilar caught this 28 yard strike from Price in the first quarter. He would later add another catch good for 44 yards.

GOAL LINE STAND!!!

The Golden Bears had the ball inside the Huskies' 5 yard line with less than a minute to play with the Dawgs clinging to a narrow 31-23 lead. This tackle at the 1 yard line was part of a GREAT goal line stand as the Husky defense rose to the challenge, turned back the Cal offense and brought home a victory!

The Huskies are now 1-0 in the PAC-12 and 3-1 overall while Cal slips to 0-1, 3-1. Next up for the UW is a trip to Utah on Saturday to play the Utes (0-1, 2-1) in another crucial PAC-12 contest. California's next game is another PAC-12 affair on Thursday, October 6th at Oregon (1-0, 3-1).

Another Good Read

I just finished my third installment of Norway's favorite fictional crime solver, Inspector Harry Hole. Another solid plot featuring a serial murderer with an even better sub-plot making things dicey for our hero.

I love every one of these intense, dark Scandanavian crime novelists!