Once Morro Bay’s speedsters broke into the secondary, they were gone.
Three sizable scoring scampers lifted the visiting Pirates over Carpinteria (1-1) at Memorial Stadium Friday, 29-11, in a contest much closer than the bizarre final score indicated.
“You musn’t play great defense for 28 plays and then not for two,” said Warriors head John Hazelton.
The lengthy scoring runs — an 86-yarder by Wyatt Gerbracht in the first, a 53-yarder by Gerbracht in the fourth and a 31-yarder by Duran Gonzalez against the Warriors’ second-stringers with a minute remaining— accounted for more than half of Morro Bay’s offense. Besides the big plays, it was a battle of short-yardage runs out of the shotgun formation.
“It was a close game, but they just really turned it on for a few plays,” said Hazelton.
Warrior quarterback R.J. Rosborough has a cannon for an arm, but his receivers struggled to hold onto the ball. Justin Alvarado was the only Carpinteria receiver with positive yardage on the night, catching nine balls for 72 yards. Other tosses by Rosborough, who finished 11-for-21, bounced off of chests and slipped through hands.
“We absolutely had some dropped balls, and that’s something we have to fix,” said Hazelton. “The nice thing is that there aren’t a lot of guys to fix it with. We have four or five senior receivers and we live and die with them.”
With the air attack not working, Rosborough spent much of his time taking snaps and bulldozing forward. The 6-4, 215-pound junior racked up 85 yards on 21 carries. The Warriors opened the second half with an impressive 15-play, 75-yard drive in which Rosborough ran six times for 47 yards, including a five-yard push into the end zone that cut the Pirate lead to 13-8.
Hazelton pointed out that the whiteboard in the locker room at halftime said something like “We are going to drive for a score, stop ’em and do it again.”
The Warriors stopped ’em after Rosborough’s touchdown when Morro Bay came up short on a 28-yard field goal. Damian Acevedo finished the ensuing Carpinteria drive with a 34-yard kick to cut Morro Bay’s lead to 13-11 with 11:47 left in the game.
But a critical safety on a high snap to the punter put the visitors up 15-11 with just under four minutes remaining and the final two long runs sealed the Pirate victory. Both Gerbracht and Gonzalez were able to juke their way through the big guys on the line and took off unchallenged from there.
“The kids and I are bitterly disappointed to lose this football game,” said Hazelton. “I liked the response in attitude and effort, just not the result.”
The Warriors will look for a better result next Friday at Nipomo.
BOX SCORE
MORRO BAY 29, CARPINTERIA 11
Morro Bay……….6 7 0 16 — 29
Carpinteria……….2 0 6 7 — 11
First Quarter
C — Safety, 11:22
MB — Gerbracht 86 run (kick no good), 7:36.
Second Quarter
MB — Lockshaw 1 pass from Barkas (Hill kick), 7:22.
Third Quarter
C — Rosborough 5 run (2-point conv. failed), 5:56.
Fourth Quarter
C — Acevedo 34 kick, 11:47.
MB — Safety, 3:48.
MB — Gerbracht 63 run (Hill kick), 2:46.
MB — Gonzalez 31 run (Hill kick), 1:09.
TEAM STATS MB C
First Downs………………11 12
Rushes-yards…….33-245 26-90
Passing yards……………80 72
Total Yards…………….325 162
Comp-att-int…….4-9-0 11-21-0
Penalties……………..5-45 4-30
INDIVIDUALS
Rushing — MB: Barkas 6-(-10), Gerbracht 7-162, Gonzalez 20-93. C: Rosborough 21-85, Milhollin 2-(-3), Razo 3-8.
Passing — MB: Barkas 4-9-0-80. C: Rosborough 11-21-0-72.
Receiving — MB: Gerbracht 1-9, Lockshaw 1-1, Czirben 1-64, Mendoza 1-6. C: Alvarado 9-72, Milhollin 2-0.
Missed FG — MB: Randall 28 (short).
