Coming off a 6-0 nonleague campaign, Fillmore had hoped to make a statement about who would rule Tri-Valley League football when it stepped onto Carpinteria’s Warrior Memorial Stadium Friday night.
Instead, it was the Warriors who roared on their Homecoming Night, shutting down a vaunted Flashes offensive unit for a one-sided 46-15 victory in both team’s TVL opener.
Any statement by the Flashes will have to wait another week, as they left quietly and quickly when the game concluded. Fillmore falls to 6-1, while Carpinteria improved to 5-1.
For Carpinteria, their stunning victory was highlighted by a number of big plays by several contributors. Paul “Munchie” Aguilar, the team’s offensive leader at quarterback, ran for a couple touchdowns, including a 70-yarder in the first quarter. He also connected on a 49-yard TD pass with Alex Rodriguez, who scored the Warriors’ first touchdown on a 1-yard dive. Jordan Robinson returned a punt for 56 yards for another score in the third quarter, and Johnny Mendoza capped Carpinteria’s scoring with a 57-yard burst in the fourth.
But Warrior head coach Ben Hallock preferred to credit his team’s defense for holding a Fillmore team that had been averaging 40 points per game during their unbeaten nonleague slate.
“We had a great plan defensively,” Hallock said of his defensive unit headed by Defensive Coordinator Rick Candaele. “Our plan was to play assignment football. Fillmore runs a series of plays from the Wing-T, and we told our players not to watch the football, or you’ll get fooled. Hold your assignments, and if the ball comes to you, make a play.”
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Fillmore was missing two of its bigger stars — Chris De La Paz and Johnny Golson, both of whom sustained injuries during practice this week.
As a result, the Flashes came out flat, mustering only 250 yards of offense and one offensive touchdown — a 13-yard pass from Corey Cole to Collin Farrar late in the fourth quarter. Their only other score came on a 49-yard interception return midway through the third quarter by Nick Paz.
When asked who he could name on his team who had a breakout game, Hallock called out Alex Rodriguez. No, no, not the Alex Rodriguez who scored two touchdowns, rushed for 42 yards on 13 carries and caught two passes for 85 more yards. Rather, the Alex Rodriguez who filled in on a ”fractured” offensive line (due to injuries) that opened up gaping holes for 316 yards on the ground.
“We have two Alex Rodriguezes,” Hallock quipped. “We used to have three.”
Whatever, for the Flashes it was too many Warriors who were elevated by the crowning of Homecoming Queen Myriah Leanne Diaz and still playing off the emotion of the recent passing of the school’s athletic director, John Ward.
That emotion showed in the opening series for both teams. Carpinteria received the opening kickoff and covered 70 yards on nine plays capped by Rodriguez’s 1-yard plunge at the 7:24 mark. Known mostly as a running team, the Warriors surprised Fillmore with a couple pass completions on that drive by Aguilar, one for 36 yards to Rodriguez.
The Flashes answered with a three-and-out possession, and it was all downhill for them from there.
Rodriguez had a 58-yard return for a TD on Fillmore’s first punt nullified by a holding penalty. No matter. Aguilar broke free two plays later for his 70-yard touchdown scamper. With Hans Pluma’s second PAT kick, Carpinteria had a 14-0 lead just over seven minutes into the game.
Aguilar broke free again from 23-yards out at the 8:42 mark of the second quarter to extend the Warriors’ lead to 20-0. Aguilar had 139 of his 148 total rushing yards in the first half, including consecutive gains of 12 and 13 yards to launch the Warriors’ third scoring drive.
Jeffrey Moorhouse had broken up a pass as a defensive back to end Fillmore’s drive that preceded Aguilar’s second TD run. Then he entered the game at quarterback subbing for Aguilar on Carpinteria’s next offensive possession that started on its own 48.
The Warrior offense didn’t miss a beat under Moorhouse’s direction. The junior back-up QB completed his first and only pass to Robinson for 23 yards and a first down to the Fillmore 16. He followed with a keeper for nine yards, and one play later, reached the end zone from three yards out to put the Warriors in a commanding 26-0 lead with 2:35 remaining in the first half.
“(Aguilar) got knocked a little bit,” Hallock said of the early substitution at quarterback. “It was just a little recovery time.
“Jeffrey did what he’s done all year — he stepped in and guided us to a score.”
Fillmore gamely tried launch a comeback on its opening drive of the second half. Peppering their ground attack at first with the combo of Paz (73 yards on 16 carries) and Farrar (71 yards on 16 carries), the Flashes reached the Carpinteria 14 on a 31-yard gain by Robert Bonilla on a double reverse off the Wing-T. That was their longest gain of the night.
But, facing a fourth-and-5 at the Carpinteria 9, Fillmore tried another reverse with Daniel Cruz and instead lost the ball on a hit-and-recovery by Gil Craddock.
Momentum briefly turned back to the Flashes when Paz intercepted an Aguilar pass and returned it the other way for 49 yards for Fillmore’s first score at the 5:46 point of the third quarter.
Aguilar was unfazed. On the Warriors’ next possession, he shook off a bad handoff in which he recovered his own fumble for a five-yard loss, by hitting a wide-open Rodriguez on the left wing for a 49-yard TD pass.
Then Robinson made his electrifying 56-yard punt return for a touchdown down the left sideline when Fillmore’s next possession went nowhere. That put Carpinteria back up by a 40-7 mountain-of-a-lead with 1:31 remaining in the third quarter.
The Flashes’ offense finally put it together with a 73-yard scoring drive capped by the 13-yard pass from Cole to Farrar with 5:03 to go in the fourth quarter. But Mendoza’s 57-yard scoring run in which he slid away from a couple would-be tacklers up the middle put an exclamation point on the Warriors’ statement victory.
Enough said.
CARPINTERIA 46, FILLMORE 15
Fillmore………….0 0 7 8– 15
Carpinteria……..14 12 12 6– 46
FIRST QUARTER
C– Rodriguez 1 run (Pluma kick) 7:24.
C– Aguiar 70 run (Pluma kick), 4:48.
SECOND QUARTER
C– Aguilar 23 run (kick blocked), 8:42.
C– Moorhouse 3 run (kick no good), 2:35.
THIRD QUARTER
F– Paz 49 interception return (Paz kick), 5:46.
C– Rodriguez 49 pass from Aguilar (Pluma kick), 2:47.
C– Robinson 56 punt return (Pluma kick, 1:31).
FOURTH QUARTER
F– Farrar 13 pass from Cole (Cole run) 5:03.
C–Mendoza 57 run (kick no good), 2:44.
F C
First Downs………………13 15
Rushing Carries-Yds….43-199 45-316
Passing……………………..5-15-0 6-7-1
Passing Yds………………51 127
Total Yds………………….250 443
Fumbles-Lost…………….1-0 4-1
Penalties-Yds…………….5-35 6-60
INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING– F: Paz 16-73, Farrar 16-71, Bonilla 3-28, Cruz 5-23, Cole 3-4. C: Aguilar 15-148, Mendoza 4-73, Rodriguez 13-42, Saenz 2-9, Stanley 1-7, Moorhouse 3-2.
PASSING– F: Cole 5-15-0-51. C: Aguilar 5-6-1-104, Moorhouse 1-1-0-23.
RECEIVING: F: Davis 1-19, Paz 2-15, Farrar 1-13, Cruz 1-4. C: Rodriguez 2-85, Robinson 2-32, Blum 2-10.
RECORDS: F 6-1, 0-1 TVL, C 5-1, 1-0 TVL.
