The562’s coverage of Vikings athletics is sponsored in part by Long Beach City College.
Something had to give on Saturday night as Long Beach City College traveled to take on Santa Barbara.
Both teams were searching for their first win of the season and behind the arm of sophomore Allen Fernett the Vikings put together a complete game during a dominating 56-7 win – the first win under first-year coach Marques Cooper.
Fernett threw for 345 yards while connecting with four different receivers on his way to five touchdown passes. He also had a rushing touchdown.
The Vikings (1-3) went right to business focusing on the pass attack as Fernett connected with five pass catchers, the final being a 3-yard toss to Devin Samples to cap a 10-play, 4-minute drive to put LBCC up 7-0 with 10:11 left in the first.
After LBCC’s defense forced a punt, Fernett aired it out on the first play to Kyle Brown for a 60-yard strike to take a 14-0 lead.
Fernett continued to push the ball down field on the Vikings’ next drive and connected with Kyle Brown for a couple big plays before keeping the ball himself for a 1-yard score to push the lead to 21-0 with 10:59 remaining in the first half.
The Vikings’ defense came up with stops and Alex Koulovatos led the way with nine tackles and an interception. Paul Kouame had five tackles, one sack and two tackles for loss.
Kayde Bodine saw action for the Vikings on their next drive and the offense didn’t slow down as he found Owen Tomich for a 37-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 28-0.
In the second half, Fernett found Tomich again as he scored his second touchdown as LBCC went up 35-0. Tomich had three catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns. The Vikings were spreading the ball around all night as seven receivers had three or more catches. Brown had a game-high 104 yards on four catches.
Fernett wasn’t done there has he tossed two more touchdowns to Riley Weinstein and Ike White to push the lead to 49-0.
Catron Hargrove capped the night when he returned an interception for a touchdown.
LBCC will return to Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday when they take on Allan Hancock at 4 p.m.
