Friday night’s “Little Big Game” featured very little passing, at least until two passes from Carpinteria quarterback Paul “Munchie” Aguilar turned out to be the biggest plays of all in the Warriors’ 14-7 home win over arch-rival Bishop Diego.
With the game tied at 7-7 and 55 seconds left, the Aguilar tossed a 20-yard bullet to Misa Ayala, who made a beautiful leaping catch to put the Warriors on the Bishop 35-yard line. On the very next play he found Joseph Burquez in the middle of the field for a 32-yard completion to put Carpinteria on the 3-yard line. He then punched in his second short touchdown of the evening with 34 ticks left to end the night’s scoring.
Aguilar was just 3-for-9 for 17 yards before the two big completions.
“You don’t throw 0-for-something. Eventually you’re gonna hit someone,” said coach Ben Hallock.
Carpinteria quarterback Paul Aguilar, who scored both Warrior touchdowns, gets around the edge on this carry.
[nggallery id=63]While both teams will open postseason play next week, Carpinteria now goes in with a hearty portion of momentum and a 7-3 record.
“It’s great to have a win going into the postseason and a win over Bishop. It’s good stuff, you know, so hopefully we use it as a good step going forward into the playoffs,” said Hallock.
Aguilar took home the game’s MVP award with a modest 69 yards passing and 48 yards rushing, but nearly everyone’s offensive statistics were modest at best. Warrior running back Alex Rodriguez rushed for 108 yards on nine carries, including a 58-yard scamper in the first half to set up Aguilar’s first touchdown. For the Cardinals, Brandon Gonzalez carried the load with 23 hard-nosed rushes for 98 yards as Bishop played its biggest contest without injured starting quarterback Nolan Tisdale.
“In terms of competing with what we know is an excellent squad, and under the circumstances we were dealing with I thought it was a gutsy performance… That was a good high school football game,” said coach Tom Crawford.
Bishop (5-5) nearly took the lead with 3:29 remaining as senior kicker Mike Morando lined up for a try at a tie-breaking 48-yard field goal. Morando blasted a majestic kick that had the distance to go in from 60 yards, but it was just wide.
The Cardinals’ touchdown came on a pass from Andrew Saucier to Bruce Garcia in the corner of the end zone with 4:40 remaining in the first half.
CARPINTERIA 14, BISHOP DIEGO 7
Bishop Diego…0 7 0 0 — 7
Carpinteria…0 7 0 7 — 14
SECOND QUARTER
C — Aguilar 1 run (Pluma kick), 11:44.
BD — Garcia 4 pass from Saucier (Morando kick), 4:40.
FOURTH QUARTER
C — Aguilar 3 run (Pluma kick), 0:34.
TEAM TOTALS BD C
First downs 11 15
Rushes-yards 45-159 35-190
Passing yards 53 69
Total yards 212 259
Passes 6-8-0 5-11-0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Punts 4-30 3-31
Penalties 5-35 5-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — BD: Gonzalez 23-98, Gregson 8-22, BGarcia 8-31, Saucier 5-7, PGarcia 1-1. C: ARodriguez 9-108, Aguilar 17-48, Arreola 5-23, Mendoza 4-11.
PASSING — BD: Saucier 6-8-0-53, C: Aguilar 5-11-0-69.
RECEIVING — BD: PGarcia 2-12, BGarcia 2-10, Gonzalez 2-31. C: ARodriguez 3-17, Ayala 1-20, Burquez 1-31.
