Let’s face it.
Abusive relationships just don’t work out, and Oaks Christian has been abusing Tri-Valley League opponents for too long.
Carpinteria happily cut ties with the visiting Lions in a 43-0 loss on Friday, just a day after the Oaks football team was voted out of the Tri-Valley League.
Oaks Christian's Malcolm Jones sheds some Carpinteria tacklers on a first-half scamper
The Warriors couldn’t get rid of the Lions quick enough, as a running clock in the second half put things on fast-forward and sent the Lions home early with their 28th consecutive victory.
As far as break-ups go, this one was mutual.
“It was time. Their school has sold their entire athletic program short by not growing up,” said Warriors coach Ben Hallock. “They’ve talked like they’re not ‘the thing’ and they are. They have something like 20 CIF championships and lots and lots of league championships. They’re ready to grow up and move on… It should have happened years ago.”
Oaks Christian coach Bill Redell has been ready to move on to the Marmonte League for a couple of years now.
“The Carpinteria guys have played hard all the time. It’s been a good series over the eight or nine years, whatever it’s been,” he said. “I think this is a good thing. Obviously the football program should not be staying in the Tri-Valley League. Don’t get me started on that one.”
The Warriors beat the Lions back in 2002, and Hallock said he believes it also happened when the teams first played each other. Oaks Christian consisted of only freshmen and sophomores when it was opened in 2000 and did not play in the Tri-Valley League until 2002.
The Lions was a bit slow to start on Friday, at least for their standards.
The Warriors (0-7) recorded the first three first downs of the contest on their first drive, including a 1-yard pass from starting quarterback Paul “Munchie” Aguilar to Chris Estrada. After an unsuccessful fake punt, the Warriors got the ball right back as Aguilar intercepted Nick Montana’s pass, which was tipped, on the very next play.
Silas Goma breaks up a pass from Carpinteria quarterback Paul Aguilar to receiver Robert Thornton on Friday
“I was real pleased about how we came out ready to play. They dropped a few passes, and I thought we did a pretty decent job of putting some forced pressure on them,” said Hallock.
Montana played into the third quarter (he was pulled after the first in a 65-6 win over Bishop Diego last week) and finished 7-for-13, throwing for three touchdown passes and the interception. Jordan Payton caught two of the scoring passes, the first for 26 yards and the second for 65. Running back Malcolm Jones rushed for 135 yards on 11 carries with touchdown runs of 15 and two yards.
Carpinteria made a handful of tackles that kept the Lions (7-0) at or behind the line of scrimmage, including a nice one from Andrew Sova in the first half and a couple by Nick Razo and Jacob “Chunk” Franco in the fourth quarter.
Jones won’t play in the Marmonte League next year – he’ll be in the Pac-10 with UCLA – but he said that the team was happy about the vote.
“I’m excited for our whole team. It means we don’t have to travel over an hour to play games against teams like this that aren’t really at our level,” he said. “I wish it could have happened this year though. I’ve got a lot of friends on those teams (in the Marmonte League).”
Aguilar was knocked out of the game with a collarbone injury (he was later reported to be okay) with two minutes left in the first quarter, and John Jimenez was thrown to the Lions – literally – to take the snaps having never done so in a game before.
Needless to say, the Carpinteria offense went from stifled to suffocated for the rest of the evening despite the efforts of Jimenez and fellow backup Zachery Boberg.
The Warriors managed just 23 yards of total offense in the game, fumbling six times (they recovered all but one of them). Aguilar had seven carries for 21 yards to lead the way.
As he’s been doing all year, Jeremy Stein continued to boom punts. He booted six for an average of 34.2 yards, with three of them over 40 yards.
“They’re such a high-caliber team that it’s tough to go into a game like this, but we do enjoy playing them because it’s such a high level of play. We just go out there with no fear and play our best,” said the senior, who also plays linebacker. “I’m stoked about holding them under 50.”
There’s plenty for the Warriors to get fired up about down the stretch, as they still have an outside shot at the playoffs if they can win out against Nordhoff, Bishop Diego and Santa Clara.
OAKS CHRISTIAN 43, CARPINTERIA 0
Oaks Christian…13 21 7 2 — 43
Santa Barbara…0 0 0 0 — 0
First quarter
OC — Payton 26 pass from Montana (Davis kick), 6:18.
OC — Jones 15 run (kick missed), 2:21.
Second quarter
OC — Payton 65 pass from Montana (Davis kick), 8:19.
OC — Smith 8 pass from Montana (Davis kick), 4:39.
OC — Fua 20 fumble return (Davis kick), 3:02.
Third quarter
OC — Jones 2 run (Davis kick)
Fourth quarter
OC — Safety
TEAM TOTALS OC, C
First Downs…17, 3
Rushes-yards…28-242, 24-10
Passing yards…200, 13
Total yards…442, 23
Passes…9-17-1, 2-6-10
Fumbles-lost…0-0, 6-1
Penalties…8-70, 1-5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — OC: Jones 11-135, Mendoza 3-20, Camacho 4-5, MOntana 1-20, Gretzky 1-15, Fifita 1-4, Lee 1-8, Brownell 1-17, Borowski 3-5, Tyrrell 1-8, Younan 1-5. C: Aguilar 7-21, Boberg 1-(-1), Saenz 5-1, Thornton 3-(-11), Jimenez 7-1, Razo 1-(-1).
Passing — OC: Montana 7-13-1-138, Gretzky 2-4-0-12. C: Aguilar 2-4-0-13, Thornton 0-1-1-0, Boberg 0-1-0-0.
Receiving — OC: Payton 2-91, Jones 3-16, Fua 1-23, Holliday 2-65, Medders 1-5. C: Estrada 1-13.
