TWO HOT TEAMS FACE OFF SATURDAY NIGHT

Photo by Bill Sobalvarro

LANCASTER – The Marauder football team is undefeated at home this season which might not bode well for visiting Santa Barbara City College, Saturday night at Marauder Stadium. 

Not to mention, AVC (4-2, 1-0) got its first road victory of the season last week against Citrus College, which happened to be the conference opener. 

However, the Vaqueros are riding a five-game winning streak since dropping their first game of the season to Ventura College. Since the loss to the Pirates, Santa Barbara has been dominant outscoring its opponents 227-92, including a come-from-behind victory against Allan Hancock last Saturday in which it scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to earn a hard-fought 43-40 victory. In fact, the Vaqueros trailed 40-21 late in the third quarter before scoring the final 22 points of the game. 

Santa Barbara (5-1, 1-0) is ranked No. 3 in the Southern California-American Division poll this week, while the Marauders are right on its tail at No. 4. The Vaqueros enter the game averaging 437 yards per game and have scored at least 40 points in each of their first six games. 

"They're a quality team. We're playing good football and so are they," AVC head coach Perry Jehlicka said. "Our biggest thing is we're in conference season, and everything is about being 1-0.  Right now we're sitting in first place and LA Valley and Santa Barbara. No matter if we win or lose, next week we'll look to be 1-0." 

Santa Barbara has the luxury of having four solid running backs, all of which average more than 50 yards per game, which could be a daunting task for AVC's defense, which allows 28 points per game this season. 

On the flipside, the Marauders could be playing their best football of the season right now. Quarterback Blake Shepherd had his best game of the season last week against the Owls. He completed 23-of-38 passes for 475 yards and four touchdowns, three of those coming to Donte Ross, who set a Marauder record with 220 receiving yards. The Shepherd-Ross combination connected on touchdown pass of 70, 76 and 23 yards. 

"It's going to be a tough game. We have to play well on both sides of the ball," Ross said. "I think if our defense plays well then we're unbeatable. But there is always room for improvement." 

As the aerial attack was in high gear, the ground game struggled for AVC. The Marauders only rushed for four yards as a team and entered the game averaging more than 130 yards per game. 

The game could end in a shootout as AVC can put up some huge numbers, but one thing's for sure it will be exciting.