As if Dos Pueblos football coach Nate Mendoza didn’t have enough to worry about as he prepares his team this week for its Channel League clash with Santa Barbara High.
“It’s homecoming and also the 50-year anniversary game,” Mendoza announced at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Café. “I don’t know who decided to put those two together.”
Lots of festivities are planned for the special occasion at Dos Pueblos on Friday night.
“We have a parade at 6 o’clock around the track during warm-ups; we have seven football players on the homecoming court. So we have a lot of distractions we’re going to get through,” said Mendoza.
The coach was proud how his team fought through adversity in last Friday’s 20-16 league win over Buena. The Chargers were penalized 13 times in the game.
“That was certainly hard to overcome,” he said. “The kids were extremely resilient on Friday night. They battled through some really, really tough moments in the fourth quarter especially and were able to get a big victory against Buena.”
Mendoza said seniors Josh Feldhaus and Sam Drew exemplified that team resiliency. Feldhaus, a two-year starter, plays outside linebacker, kicker and long snapper. He made two important field goals in the Buena game.
Mendoza said Drew is a senior shut-down cornerback who works his tail off every day.
SBCC: Head coach Craig Moropoulos knows a thing or two about rivalries. As an assistant at the Division 1 level, he was part of the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry, Arizona-Arizona State and Boise State-Idaho. As a prep coach at Santa Barbara High, he coached against city rivals San Marcos and Dos Pueblos.
The manner in which his Vaqueros rallied in the second half and beat county rival Hancock, 43-40, last Saturday in rainy Santa Maria was one of the sweetest rivalry wins of his career.
“The win, I termed it epic,” he said. “It was epic for me personally. It was one of the biggest wins I’ve ever been involved in with, probably the biggest.”
Down 40-21 with five minutes left in the third quarter, SBCC scored three touchdowns, including the game winner with 20 seconds to play.
“It was huge. Anybody who knows City College football and the way the program is going, it was big for our guys,” said Moropoulos
The coach introduced three “direct contributors” to the win: quarterback Noah Holle (the Athlete of the Week), receiver John Licea and running back Manny Nwosu. Licea caught a tipped Holle pass at the 1-yard line to set up the winning touchdown.
Moropoulos called Nwosu, a freshman out of Dos Pueblos, “pound-for-pound one of the most physical guys on our team.”
The Vaqueros (5-1, 1-0 American Pacific League) play at Antelope Valley on Saturday.
Santa Barbara High: Coach JT Stone said two plays turned last Friday’s game against Ventura around. The Dons trailed by 12 when Chris “Tick” Jellison’s punt return for a touchdown was called back by a penalty. Ventura then intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown en route to a 50-21 win.
Stone said his players “are pumped up” for Friday night’s game at Dos Pueblos. “This game is special to these kids and good for the community. Dos Pueblos is definitely the place to be. I expect an exciting Friday night.”
Stone is a Dos Pueblos alum.
Carpinteria: The Warriors make their debut in the Frontier League on Friday night with a home game against Fillmore, a school they’ve been playing since 1929.
“The Frontier League is new stuff for us,” coach Ben Hallock said. “It’s a three-game season.
“We feel it’s a great opportunity for us,” he added. “We’re in that part of the season where you set all your goals early on all the things you say you want to do and these next three games a lot of that stuff is going to be coming true. We’re either going to make it happen or it’s not going to happen. It’s crunch time for our seniors.”
Hallock said juniors Leo Vargas and Vinny Gonzalez have stepped up their games and he’s looking forward to seeing what they can do for the rest of the season.
The coach gave an update on Santa Paula quarterback Keshaun Mata, the cancer survivor who went in for surgery last Monday because doctors found a spot on his lung. Hallock said the player received a clean bill of health and the coaches and doctors were setting up a rehabilitation schedule in hopes Mata can get back on the field and play.
Laguna Blanca: “We’re taking our lumps right now,” coach Shane Lopes said. The Owls are 3-4 on the season and 0-3 in Condor League after a 64-34 loss against Villanova Prep.
“We haven’t had a losing record in 4-5 years. It’s been challenging but our guys keep fighting on,” said Lopes.
He said junior Laird Fowler exemplifies that fighting spirit. “He has all the heart you want in a player.”
The Rams play at Cate on Saturday at 2 p.m.
VOLLEYBALL
San Marcos: “We’ve had an exciting season,” co-coach Tina Brown said. “It’s been very competitive short of Ventura, which is 19-0. The four others (San Marcos, Santa Barbara, Dos Pueblos, Buena) have really had to compete.”
Brown said the Royals met their goal of finishing in second place at 5-3 and she credited part of the team’s success to the chemistry, leadership and work ethic the seniors provided. She introduced three of those seniors: Erin Holehouse, Dani Dusebout and Ady Colburn.
The Royals play at Santa Ynez on Wednesday and compete in Santa Barbara’s Tournament of Champions over the weekend.
Santa Barbara: Coach John Gannon watched his team suffer losses to city rivals Dos Pueblos and San Marcos last week.
“I know what goes around comes around, and we’ve had a lots of success over the years but we didn’t have it last week,” he said.
The Dons play league champion Ventura before hosting their Tournament of Champions over the weekend. The tournament annually draws the best teams in the state.
“It’s arguably one of the best volleyball tournaments in the country and in the state for sure,” Gannon said. “We take a lot of pride on hosting the tournament.”
Gannon thanked senior setter Bella Gniadek and outside hitter Soliel Hallig for their hard work and attitude. Hallig became eligible in October after transferring back to Santa Barbara from Oaks Christian. “It’s great to have you back on the team,” he told her.
Laguna Blanca: Coach Jason Donnelly said his team is in an unique situation because most of the work it’s doing to prepare for the postseason is being done in practice while it plays Condor League games.
“We’ve been practicing really hard,” he said.
Donnelly said first-year player Kathryn Norris is a true middle and gives the team “opportunities in the middle that we haven’t had in the past”
He called junior Julia Fay a “hybrid kid,” because she can play anywhere on the court. “She has ice in her veins, nothing bothers her,” Donnelly said. “She will play a key role in the playoffs.”
Westmont women: Coach Patti Cook is amazed her team is still undefeated.
“We’re currently 25 and 0, which is crazy to say. It’s crazy to actually have that come out of my mouth, but it’s amazing,” she said. “To go undefeated was not ever our goal, not ever our intention, but it’s a nice byproduct. What our goal is all along is to win the conference for the first time since 1993.”
The Warriors have six matches remaining, with five of them on the road.
Cook said the team is hitting .262 while holding opponents to a .092 average.
She said Athlete of Week Libby Dahlberg was unable to attend the luncheon to receive her award because she had a quiz and a test at school on Monday.
“Libby is a big smarty pants,” Cook said with a laugh.
Carpinteria: Corina Porter provides great energy and is an exciting player on the squad, according to coach Dino Garcia.
He also noted the athletic Jenny Alaniz has developed as a volleyball player has become a great asset to the team.
UCSB Women: Assistant coach Kolby O’Donnell lauded the play of senior middle Elizabeth Sheffield and libero Emilia Petrachi in matches against UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton over the weekend. The Gauchos lost to UCR in four sets but bounced back to beat Fullerton.
Sheffield hit .378 for the two matches and Petrachi was a digging machine, picking 49 in the two matches, averaging 6.12 digs per set. She had 29 digs against Fullerton.
The Gauchos (12-8, 3-4 Big West) host Long Beach State on Friday and Cal State Northridge on Saturday at the Thunderdome. Long Beach is unbeaten in conference.
WATER POLO
UCSB Men: The Gauchos won their first game in the Golden Coast Conference by defeating San Jose State 13-7 on Friday night. The match featured Santa Barbara’s Hauschild brothers, Ben and Shane, going against each. The brothers are San Marcos alums.
“It was fun to see. UCSB won the match, but Ben really annihilated his brother out there, four goals to one,” Gaucho coach Wolf Wigo cracked. “Both brothers left with some bragging rights.”
Earlier in the week, the Gauchos gave No. 1 and undefeated UCLA a battle before falling by three goals, 10-7. UCLA is on a NCAA-record streak of 54 wins in a row.
The Gauchos play their second conference game on Thursday at 7 p.m. at home against Long Beach State before taking on Stanford on Saturday.
“Both those games are absolutely winnable for us and we’re looking forward to them,” said Wigo.
SBCC Women: The Vaqueros are 19-0. The team plays at the Battle of the Beach over the weekend at Long Beach, opening against Saddleback. Top teams Fullerton and Riverside also are in the tournament.
San Marcos: Coach Jeff Ashton said his rivalry story “doesn’t end the same as coach Moropoulos’ does.” His Royals lost their first-round encounters against Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos to start Channel League play at 0-2.
“Our goal was to win league and when you start 0-2 you have to re-evaluate things,” he said. “We have a lot of seniors on our team and it would have been easy to write the season off or lose interest and they didn’t. We had some good conversations and they’ve come back ready to play.”
Ashton cited the play of seniors Ben Spievak and Adam Fuller. Spievak was converted from a field player to a goalie this season. “He stepped into goal and has done a tremendous job,” said Ashton.
He said Fuller prefers defense, but when asked to step up on offense he delivered in a win over Ventura last week.
Ashton said both players are exceptional students.
The Royals finish the first round of league play this week against Buena and start the second round next week against Santa Barbara at home.
Dos Pueblos: Coach Connor Levoff said his team is in a much better place with the return of co-captain and center Taylor Gustason. He missed 13 games because of a knee injury but remained with the team at workouts and games.
“It was nice to have an assistant coach hanging around that knew the players,” Levoff said. “He’s jumped back in with fervor and energy.”
Senior captain Dylan Elliott picked up the slack in Gustason’s absence. “He’s been a steady force, our leading scorer and leader in and out of the pool,” Levoff said.
The coach said Gustason and Elliott “are as good a 1-2 punch I could ever ask for and as good a 1-2 punch there is in the Channel League.”
The Chargers host Santa Barbara on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m.
Santa Barbara: Coach Mark Walsh said his team goes through the gauntlet again as it plays against Dos Pueblos, Ventura and San Marcos in consecutive games in the second-round of league play. The Dons beat all three en route to a 4-0 record in the first round.
The Dons play at DP on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m.
Walsh said because of illness and injuries he was minus two starters and a top substitute at the North-South Invitational last weekend in Atherton. Santa Barbara went 1-3.
Carpinteria: Coach Matt Organista introduced Eric Thornberg and Malik Mehai. Thornberg returned to the pool a week and a half ago after suffering a broken leg from being struck by a car during the summer.
He called Mehai an “extremely talented player” who prefers to keep a low profile. Mehai has an impressive record of 68-3 in sprints for the ball.
The Warriors enter the second round of league play this week, playing host to Malibu and Cate.
TENNIS
Cate Girls: Coach Trevor Thorpe said the Rams are 8-1, with their lone loss coming against San Marcos on total games won after the teams tied 9-9 in sets.
Cate has Tri-Valley League matches remaining against Foothill Tech and Carpinteria.
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