FOOTBALL ROUTS SBCC IN REGULAR-SEASON FINAL, 52-19

SANTA MARIA-- Coach Kris Dutra's AHC football team closed out its' 2004 regular season with a 52-19 pasting of Santa Barbara City College Saturday at Righetti High School's Warrior Stadium.

With the win, Hancock (6-4, 4-3 WSC North) finishes no less than third in the Western State Conference Northern Division. The Bulldogs assured that Dutra would finish with a third winning season in his fourth year and kept alive a post-season bowl berth. The California Community College Commission on Athletics is slated to announce post-season invitations on Sunday, Nov. 14.

The landslide started early and turned into a rout before the half, as AHC scored on each of its first seven possessions. Freshman tailback Anthony Melton (Delano, CA) broke loose for a 52-yard touchdown run at the 12:30 mark of the first quarter. Just five minutes later he found a gaping hole through the Vaquero center and was off on a 49-yard TD jaunt. Santa Barbara mustered a 47-yard field goal by Ryan Gambucci at the 4:14 mark, but 14-3 would be as close as it got.

Hancock responded with three unanswerd touchdowns, on runs of 20, 24 and 10 yards by freshman tailback Drew Williams (Queens, NY) and a 42-yard field goal by freshman placekicker Victor Velasco (Santa Maria). Gambucci's 30-yard field goal with just eight seconds left in the half made it 38-6 Hancock at the break.

The Bulldogs picked right up where they left off on their first possession of the second half, as freshman quarterback Blake Sartini connected with sophomore wide receiver Derek Sedin on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 12:04 remaining in the third quarter. Melton scored his third TD in the final minute of the third period on an eight-yard run, running the total to 52-6. SBCC managed two meaningless scores in the final period, including a 9-yard TD pass from Preston Maloney to Craig Neuvert with seven seconds left.

As expected, Hancock's dominance was eveident in the final team statistics, where the Bulldogs posted 556 total yards --including 464 on the ground-- to SBCC's 264. AHC made 33 first downs to the Vaqueros' 19. Individually, Williams paced Hancock with 182 yards on 27 carries, which took him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season at 1,009. Melton added 169 yards on 18 carries.