Carpinteria High lost a football game Friday night, but could well have found the missing ingredient for a successful season – a powerful heart beat.
Trailing Nipomo 22-0 and barely registering a pulse for the first half, the Warriors emerged a different team from the locker room, rallying for four touchdowns before falling 36-29 in a non-league game at Memorial Field. It was a display of determination that had been missing in the Warriors’ two opening losses, said quarterback Paul Aguilar.
“We can build on this,” he said. “We just need to play with more heart, like we did in the second half. We’re tired of losing and we know that we have to play with more heart and come out strong from the start of the game, first whistle to last whistle. We can’t waste two days of practice like we did this week. We have to come out strong and play with heart every day.”
None of this, of course, should detract from an impressive offensive performance by Nipomo. Running back Eric Penningroth rushed for 202 yards and two touchdowns and caught five passes for 96 yards and a score as the Titans improved to 2-1. Quarterback Josh Correia was also effective, completing 16 passes for 234 yards and running for another 50.
In fact, the Titans might well have prevented the Warriors from finding their second-half rhythm if not for a rash of penalties – 16 for 117 yards, including one that wiped out a 70-yard TD-run by Penningroth.
“We were sloppy with the penalties,” said Nipomo coach Russ Edwards. “I don’t really think they ever stopped us as much as we stopped ourselves. I told the team after that we open our league with three of the best teams and, if we play like we did tonight, there is no way we beat those teams.”
The Titans’ inability to put the game away, however, was only partly due to the yellow caution flags raised so often by officials. Aguilar, generously listed at 5-foot-11 and 150 pounds, ran with wild abandon in the second half after being held to just nine yards on six carries in the first two quarters. Aguilar finished with 113 yards rushing and three scores, including a 2-point PAT run.
“We’re young,” said Carpinteria coach Ben Hallock, noting that almost all the Warrior starters are sophomores or juniors. “We need to learn to play low and hard. We’re learning, but we’re nowhere close to doing what we can do.”
Aguilar’s best run was a 47-yard weave through a maze of Titan defenders and downfield blocks by the Warriors to set-up a 4-yard TD-run by Alex Rodriguez. That, plus a diving PAT score by Aguilar, brought the Warriors within a single touchdown at 29-21 with 4:15 to play.
Rodriguez, a tiny bolt of lightning at 5-5 and 130 pounds, rushed for a modest 38 yards but was electric on special teams, totaling better than 120 yards on kickoff and punt returns.
“We knew we could make some plays in the kicking game and we knew we could make some plays on offense,” said Hallock. “We made some stops today. We had a chance at four interceptions. We know we can make plays. You just have to keep believing and playing with heart.”
Penningroth put the Titans in control again when he took a short pass from Correia and turned it into a 38-yard TD-pass with 3:28 to play. That followed shortly after an unlucky bounce for the Warriors when a short, wobbling punt found the back of a Carpinteria player’s leg for a fumble recovered by Nipomo near midfield. But Carpinteria rallied one more time on a 67-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard score by Aguilar and a 2-point PAT pass from Misa Ayala to Jovan Saenz with 1:27 to play. Carpinteria attempted an onsides kick but did not recover.
Aguilar scored the Warriors’ first touchdown with a 14-yard run on the opening possession of the second half and Saenz added a 3-yard run late in the third quarter. An 8-yard run by Penningroth made it 29-13 early in the fourth quarter.
First-half scores by the Titans came on a 15-yard run by Penningroth, a 45-yard interception return by Garrett Robinson and 7-yard pass from Correia to Kevin Britt.
NIPOMO 36, CARPINTERIA 29
Nipomo…14 8 0 14 — 36
Carpinteria…0 6 3 6 — 15
First quarter
N–Penningroth 15 run (pass failed) 8:31.
N–Robinson 45 interception return (Britt run) 1:38.
Second quarter
N–Britt 7 pass from Correia (Penningroth run) :33.
Third quarter
C–Aguilar 14 run (kick blocked) 10:18.
C–Saenz 3 run (Maya kick) 2:09.
Fourth quarter
N–Penningroth 8 run (Corona kick) 5:58.
C–Rodriguez 4 run (Aguilar run) 4:15.
N–Penningroth 38 pass from Correia (Corona kick) 3:28.
C–Aguilar 5 run (Saenz pass from Ayala) 1:27.
TEAM TOTALS…….N, C
First Downs…23, 16
Rushes-yards…34-252, 39-198
Passing yards…234, 87
Total yards…486, 285
Passes…16-29-1, 8-17-1
Fumbles-lost…1-0, 1-1
Penalties…16-117, 2-8
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: N: Penningroth 23-202, Correia 11-50. C: Aguilar 19-115, Rodriguez 8-38, Saenz 12-47.
Passing: N: Correria 16-29-1-234. C: Aguilar 8-17-1-87.
Receiving: N: Britt 7-93, Epley 3-43, Penningroth 5-96, Jackson 1-2. C: Stein 2-16, Rodriguez 3-39, Thornton 1-12, Ayala 2-20.
Missed FG: C: 33, 50.
