Garcia, defense come up big for Carpinteria

Carpinteria’s football team is on a roll.

The Warriors forced five Nordhoff turnovers and defensive back Oscar Garcia returned an interception for avtouchdown in a 26-7 win in the Tri-Valley League opener in Ojai on Friday night.

It was the third straight win for Carpinteria, which improves to 3-5 on the season. Nordhoff fell to 1-7

“It’s been awhile since we’ve had a win here,” said Carpinteria head coach Ben Hallock, “but we punted the ball really well, established field position and made them use the clock. They moved the ball on us, but we had two big plays on offense and two really big plays on defense.”

Garcia made a big play on defense. After Nordhoff intercepted a pass and moved the ball to the Carpinteria 20, Garcia picked off a pass and returned it 84 yards for a touchdown, giving the Warriors a 21-7 lead.

Carpinteria scored on its first possession of the game, driving 78 yards in six plays, with quarterback Jimmy Graves bolting 50 yards on a draw play for the touchdown.

Nordhoff answered with a 67-yard play-action TD pass from Daniel Williams to Regin Wilson.

Carpinteria took the lead for good on a 2-yard run by Graves. Garcia set up the TD with a 64-yard run.