Moses split the Red Sea again

By Michael Ashcraft --

The Corsairs stumbled to a dreadful loss against Santa Barbara City College, whose larger team formed a massive intimidating Sea of Red jerseys.

Santa Monica College struggled to break through with passing and running on offense. On defense, they floundered with tackling and coverage.

Virtually, the only player to draw blood was Gunnison Bloodgood, who caught the ball on a slant and saw the midfield open to TD. He kicked it into fifth gear to open scoring for Santa Monica early in the first quarter.

"It was a great play call," says Bloodgood. "Sam (Vaulton) delivered a great ball. Great blocking up front. It was a great pass."

Since he divided the Red Sea of Vaqueros red jerseys, we'll call him Moses.

Unfortunately, Moses only performed one miracle Saturday. Santa Monica did not add points to the scoreboard for the rest of the game, which ended 7-52.

A full 45 of those Vaqueros points came in the first half as Santa Barbara's quarterback Alex Johnson exploited weak SMC coverage with pass after pass on the money. Why didn't Santa Barbara double their score in the second half? It appears they just mercifully eased off the gas pedal.

"It was frustrating," Bloodgood says. "But we have one game left. We're hoping to bounce back."

Santa Monica is scheduled to make up next Saturday against West LA one of the two games canceled due to Covid.

Coach Kelly Ledwidth assumed full blame for the lopsided loss.

"I didn't get us coming out with enough energy," Coach said. "I didn't get them ready to show up with the right energy that we needed coming off the bus. Absolutely I blame myself. With a game like that, I didn't get us prepared.

"Gunnison had a first good half. I was happy to see him play well."

Another player who operated as a threat was Tariq Brown, who made several receptions.

If it's true that Santa Barbara blunted their attack in the second half, it's also true that Santa Monica came up with some good tackles and some good stops. SMC's Maximillian Palees sacked the quarterback in the third quarter. The defense forced one punt and two 4th down turnovers to give the ball to the offense.

But the offense was befuddled by interceptions, as it has in almost every game. Vault threw two interceptions in the first half and two in the second.

It was Youngwook Shim's last game, and he played more downs than every before. The South Korean grew up practicing wrestling and judo in his native land and attended a high school in the State of Kansas where he fell in love with football, a sport played in America and pretty much no where else.

Youngwook -- or Wook, as his teammates affectionately call him -- flies home Monday. He prolonged his stay in America just to play football on the Santa Monica College team.

"I don't care about transferring my credits. I just love this sport," the defensive lineman says. "I just wanted to play more."

Prior to coming to America, Youngwook only saw football on YouTube.

"I'm blessed that I got the opportunity to practice with these guys," he adds. "I saw all the NFL, and I thought that's a great sport. I really gave it a lot of time. Football practice helped me to improve the skill of keep doing it," of perseverance and discipline despite adversity.

On Saturday, Gunnison will be gunning for the victory against West LA. The freshman liberal arts major says, that aside from football, he likes to play music from the Beatles on the harmonica -- a little known skill of his that outside of family gatherings doesn't get much air time.

So it he takes exception to being called Moses, maybe he won't mind being called the Harmonica of Santa Monica.

Read the rest of the Santa Monica College's football games:

• Victory against LA Valley College.
• Loss against Antelope Valley
• Loss against Moorpark College.
• Victory against Orange Coast.
• Loss against Pasadena.
• Victory against Compton.

Michael Ashcraft teaches journalism at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica. Two of his former students are on the SMC team.