DOWN WITH PANTS!

Tonight I attended one of the most highly anticipated high school football games in Ventura County this season between the crosstown rivals Saint Bonaventure Seraphs and Ventura Cougars. The entire city has been buzzing about this game for the past couple of weeks and it was widely predicted that this could be one of the greatest high school games to be played in this area this year, maybe even this decade, maybe even this century. This game featured so many stories that you couldn't help but be excited, even if you are a transplant who has no affiliation to either school.

The game featured the huge public school (Ventura) against the small Catholic prep school (Saint Bonaventure) who are huge rivals in every sport. Saint Bonaventure is a football powerhouse having won 18 straight and 89 of the last 92 games. Ventura is always a pretty good football team but has always played second fiddle to the Seraphs including two losses last year.

Both teams came into the game undefeated at 8-0 (3-0 in conference) ranked #1 and #2 in the region featuring explosive offenses that average more than 45 points a game. The team's quarterbacks, Matt Evans for Saint Bonaventure and Lee Mondol for Ventura, are both seniors who have been lifelong best friends. Both teams feature numerous players that will be playing division one college football next season.

The nearly 7,000 fans in attendance were hyped into a frenzy ready for the game of the year. The stage was set for an amazing football game. Unfortunately, what we got was the ass whooping of the year, or maybe the decade, maybe even the century.

Saint Bonaventure jumped down the throats of the Cougars immediately posting 30 points in the first seven minutes of play, 37 points in the first quarter and 47 in the first half. They were incredible shredding the poor Ventura secondary on every pass. They looked like a college team playing a middle school squad. I left at halftime when the score was 47-7 and the final score was eventually 60-14.

So the game didn't exactly live up to the hype. Saint Bonaventure was just way too good for the Cougars. But it appears that these two teams will meet again later this year in the playoffs and you can bet that both teams will have learned from this slaughtering. Maybe that will be the game of the year, decade or century.