VC football's perfect season ends with imperfect playoff opener against Riverside

The Ventura College football team’s perfect season evaporated Saturday night into a hail of errors.

No. 4 Riverside scored 21 points off three first-half turnovers to build a 31-7 halftime lead along the way to a 41-21 rout of top-seeded Ventura on Saturday night in the Southern California semifinals at the VC Sportsplex.

“They kind of did to us what we did to everybody during the year,” said Ventura head coach Steve Mooshagian. “It’s a tough way to end the season. … You feel snake bit a little bit.”

Following up a 10-0 regular season with a frustrating loss in the home playoff opener brought back sour memories of 2012, when the Pirates’ first 10-0 regular season in school history ended with a home playoff loss to Bakersfield.

“There’s something to be said about that,” Mooshagian said. “We had a bye week. That might have had as much to it as anything. I thought it was going to be in our favor and we’d get some guys back (from injury).”

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Instead, the Pirates (10-1) were without starting quarterback Jordan Pachot, safety Cail Jackson, offensive lineman Reese Silofau and a few other key players, despite last weekend’s bye.

“That hurt,” Mooshagian said of losing Pachot. “We thought he might have a chance.”

Stepping in for Pachot, freshman quarter Vince Walea, the former Oxnard High quarterback, completed 20 of 42 passes for 169 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

“We prepared for Vince to start,” Mooshagian said. “But it’s hard, because he hadn’t had that much experience all year. Throwing him into a game like this is not an easy thing to do.”

Running back Julian Kelly ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Receiver Terrell Vaughn caught eight passes for 78 yards and a touchdown.

Riverside turned a pair of takeaways to jump out to an early 14-0 lead.

Demarco Moorer’s interception of a Vaughn double pass set up Jordan Barton’s 23-yard TD run with 9:34 left in the first quarter.

Carlton Johnson’s 31-yard recovery of Walea’s fumble on the Riverside 21 set up Dean Connor’s 5-yard TD run with 4:06 left in the first quarter.

“If we don’t turn the ball over it’s a whole different ballgame,” Mooshagian said.

VC briefly responded with a six-play, 67-yard drive, pulling within 14-7 on Walea’s 14-yard TD pass to Vaughn with 1:38 left in the first quarter.

But the bottom fell out in the second quarter.

Barton hit Marquis Ashley for an 80-yard scoring strike and Johnson returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown three minutes apart.

“They made some plays,” Mooshagian said. “I’ll give them credit. They made a couple real nice throws and catches.”

When Riverside’s Ricard Chavez hit a 43-yard field goal to end the half, Ventura was staring up at a 31-7 halftime deficit.

Barton’s 3-yard TD pass to Juwan Tucker made it 41-7 after three quarters.

With the game out of reach, Kelly capped a 14-play, 68-yard scoring drive with a 4-yard TD with 14:01 to play. He added a 1-yard TD run with 6:13 left, set up by Channel Islands High graduate Ralph Navarro’s 56-yard interception return

“This team was pretty special,” Mooshagian said. “That’s the hard part of it.”

Joe Curley covers high school, collegiate and professional football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. Follow him @vcsjoecurley onTwitter,FacebookandInstagram.