Led by Omar Miranda’s near perfect three touchdown performance, Carpinteria overcame the loss of their offensive coordinator midway through the second quarter to defeat the Oak Park 45-24 at Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium on Friday night.
The wide receiver led the Warriors offense with five receptions for 137 yards and two touchdowns. He also had two interceptions while playing safety, one of which was an 80-yard pick six.
Quarterback Jimmy Graves returned from an injury to to lead Carpenteria’s offense which piled up 20 first downs en route to 313 rushing yards. He also called offensive plays for more than half of the game after the Warriors’ Offensive Coordinator was ejected in the second quarter due to repeated unsportsmanlike penalties.
“Omar is honestly an all-around athlete, he is a star basketball player, he stepped to play football for the first time this year. He has just been good offense and defense. You ask him to do a job and I have confidence in him to do it,” Graves said about his teammate.
As his sister ran and hugged him, Miranda seemed at a loss for words. After a game where he scored three touchdowns and accumulated 247 all-purpose yards, his reaction was a little more relaxed then his frenzied 80 yard pick-six.
“This was my first game playing safety,” remarked Miranda. “I usually play cornerback.”
It looks like the switch payed off for Carpinteria Coach Ben Hallock.
“He is a senior and this is his first time playing. He missed last week’s game so this was just his second career game,” Hallock said. “He has obviously got some talent and the ability to make big plays, so this is what we saw tonight.”
Taking over the offense completely in the second quarter, Graves completed 9-of-13 passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for 74 yards on the ground and another score, and effectively managed a formidable read-option offense that featured himself, running back Rudy Beltran, and fullback Aaron Vargas.
“We were able to make some adjustments and get some plays runs in the second half in order to continue gaining yards. It keeps the ball away from them. In the second half, if they don’t have the ball then they can’t score. So we had some good drives that helped set the tone offensively,” added Hallock.
Graves’ Oak Park counterpart, Jacob Lund, did not fare as well. While finishing 13 of 30 for 196 yards, Lund’s two touchdowns came on phenomenal catches. But due to pressure from the Carpinteria’s impressive defensive pass rush, he was forced to throw off balance most of the time, resulting in bad decisions, most importantly shown in his two interceptions.
Lucas Flamer led the Eagles in receiving with 87 yards and a touchdown on four receptions.
Apart from Miranda’s outstanding performance, Beltran and Vargas quietly rushed for over 100 yards each and a touchdown apiece. According to Graves, Beltran and Vargas are not the starters, and were actually starting in place of Richie Gallardo and Oscar Garcia. When they return, look out for the Warriors’ formidable rush attack.
Next Friday, Carpinteria (2-1) will face South Torrance at home. On the other hand, Oak Park (0-4) takes on Santa Paula on the road.
