LEGACY BROUGHT HOME

A new era of Fullerton College football began as the Hornets celebrated a 27-14 victory over Santa Barbara City College on their own turf for the first time in the program's history.

The stands were full on Saturday night to witness history in the making. It even began with the Hornets winning the coin flip, which was called by FC President Dr. Cynthia Olivo. FC deferred giving Santa Barbara the ball to start the first half, however the Fullerton defense came out with high-energy forcing the Vaqueros to a quick three and out. 

Fullerton took over on its own 42-yardline and moved the ball down the field. A 22-yard pass from quarterback Brandon Nunez to Christian Steward set the Hornets up from 8-yards out. A play later, Nunez took the ball in scoring the first touchdown on FC's home turf. Kicker Jonathan Fobear's PAT was good putting Fullerton on top 7-0 with 10 :24 on the clock.

The Hornet defense stepped up again shutting down Santa Barbara's attack forcing another three and out. A booming punt by SBCC's Dominic Soares traveled 57 yards before it was downed at the Fullerton 3-yardline. Buried deep in its own territory, Nunez led the FC offense to the promised land going 97-yards in twelve plays on a long drive that was capped off by a 3-yard run by the mobile quarterback. The PAT attempt was botched on a bad snap, but the Hornets were up 13-0 with 5:15 left in the first quarter.

The second quarter saw a rise in the Vaqueros passing game as two deep passes from Will Doherty to Cameron Green set up two touchdowns by Prince Borten from 2 and 4 yards out. With 4:25 left in the second quarter, Santa Barbara had put Fullerton on notice with a 14-13 edge.

As the first half began to wind down, the Hornet defense forced yet another three and out getting the ball back on the Vaquero 29-yardline after a shanked punt. Brandon Nunez dropped back hitting Christian Steward for a 14-yard touchdown with 58 seconds to spare. Fobear hit the PAT giving Fullerton back its lead at 20-14.

In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Fullerton padded their one-score lead on an 8-yard run scamper the left side crossing into the endzone nearly unscathed. The PAT by Fobear gave the Hornets some breathing room with a 27-14 advantage at 12:38.

With 2:41 left in the game, Santa Barbara did not pack it in as the team fought hard to move the ball down to the FC 19-yardline. That's as far as they got before getting shut down by the Hornet defense after going for on fourth down. From there, FC went into victory formation and ran the remaining 40-seconds off the clock for a successful first-ever home win.

The winning tradition and legacy that Hall of Fame coach Hal Sherbeck introduced when he first set foot on campus in 1961 will continue to resonate on FC's home field for many years to come. In honor of Coach, the first home game of every season will be called "The Sherbeck Football Classic" celebrating the winning tradition of a football program that began in 1916. There were some great teams like the 1953 and 1955 squads, who won the first conference titles under head coaches Dick Spaulding and Bud Dawson, but it was Sherbeck who put the Hornets on the national football map with 16 conference titles, 3 national titles, a 47-game unbeaten streak, 271 victories, and ended his career as the winningest coach in community college football history.

Up Next: The Hornets (1-0 overall) travel up to College of the Canyons on Saturday, September 9th. Kickoff is at 1:00 pm.

*Photo by Jim McCormack