For the first time since early September, the El Capitan High School football team returned to its home field Friday night, and it did so in near-perfect fashion.

Vaqueros senior quarterback Brandt Barker completed his first nine passes, which included three touchdowns.

Barker, who was also on the home field, completed 14 of 17 passes for 160 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-0 victory over rival West Hills to reclaim the Tony Bruner Memorial Trophy.

“It’s always great to be at home because our fans are great and our coaches are great,” Barker said after the game. “It’s our home court I’ve been playing here since I was eight years old.”

Barker led the Vaqueros on a 10-play, 80-yard drive, capped by a 20-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Michael Valencia.

The El Capitan defense went three-and-out to get the offense back on the field. The Vaqueros then went on a six-play, 69-yard drive that ended with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Valencia, who caught five passes for a 91-yard drive.

After another three-and-out by the defense, Barker and the offense put together a third straight touchdown drive that ended with an 8-yard pass to senior Tracy Banegas.

“That’s it. They’re all young,” Vaqueros head coach Ron Burner said of his pass receivers. “We only have one receiver coming back, so all the receivers are first-year varsity players and they’re just learning. We get hot at the right time.”

The defense brought in West Hills junior punter Christian Slojkowski again after a third straight three-and-out that was highlighted by sacks from junior Josh Vasquez and senior Marlon Ames.

“Our defense is awesome,” said Burner, who was also without his two starting cornerbacks. “If we can hold El Cajon Valley, I think it’s seven and under next week, we could break our school record for points against. It’s close. There are a few teams in the 60s and 70s that had four or five stops. This is one of the top five saves of all time at El Cap.”

During the Vaqueros’ fourth offensive possession, that’s when Barker recorded his first of three incompletions.

However, that didn’t stop El Capitan (6-3, 5-0 Grossmont Valley League) from continuing to move the chains.

Instead, they went for a play-action piece: the Statue of Liberty. On second-and-10 from the Wolfpack 22-yard line with 5:07 left in the first half, Barker reached for the throw, but instead of letting it go, he put the ball behind for senior running back Brady Joralemon. catch it for a 22-yard touchdown to take a 28-0 lead.

“We worked on everything in practice,” Barker said of the trick play. “Brady, he’s always going to run down. He will do everything he can. He had the lane and went into the end zone.”

Overall, Joralemon ran the ball 12 times for 75 yards and a touchdown.

West Hills (4-5, 2-2) was led by senior Edgard Leon, who caught three passes for 21 yards.

Next, West Hills travels to Santana and El Capitan hosts El Cajon Valley in the regular season finale.

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El Capitan 41, West Hills 0

West Hills 0 0 0 0 — 0

El Capitan 14 14 7 6 — 41

E – Valencia 20 pass from Barker (Ford kick)

E – Valencia 21 pass from Barker (Ford kick)

E – Banegas 8 pass from Barker (Ford kick)

E – Joralemon 22 run (Ford kick)

E – Linder 4 pass from Barker (kick Ford)

E – Easley 24 run (pass failed)