Ricky Bautista (photo by Larry Newman)
Ricky Bautista (photo by Larry Newman)

Bautista honored as SCIAC Athlete of the Week

ORANGE, Calif. – Senior QB Ricky Bautista landed his first career SCIAC Athlete of the Week honor after leading the Chapman University football team to a 45-26 win over Redlands last week. Bautista completed 21-of-29 passes for 414 yards and four touchdowns.

The Irvine, Calif. native became the first quarterback in Chapman history to have two 400-yard passing games in his career. He has completed 74 percent of his passes in the last three games while throwing for 916 yards and 10 touchdowns. His 305.3 yards per game average in SCIAC games is tops in the conference. He ranks second in completion percentage, second in touchdowns and has the highest passing efficiency rating at 216.8.

Bautista helped set the tone early on as he snuck into the end zone from one yard out to end Chapman's first drive and completed a 69-yard TD pass to senior Jacob Isabel to cap the next drive and make it 14-0. The big plays came again and again as Bautista found Isabel and junior Dominic Vaccher down the field for five passes of 25 yards or more.

He has thrown just one interception this season in the fourth quarter against Linfield. Since then, he has not been intercepted in 122 attempted while completing 86 of those passes.