A monster night from Dos Pueblos’ Manny Nwosu spurred the Chargers past visiting Carpinteria on Friday, 53-28, in a non-league game played at O’Leary Stadium.
Nwosu amassed 340 all-purpose yards and five touchdowns against the Warriors, frequently breaking multiple tackles on his longest runs. He totaled 218 rushing yards on 16 carries, added another 87 yards on four catches, and returned a pair of kickoffs for another 35 yards.
“(Coach) Mendo challenged me this week and said he needed me to step up and push my team to get us ready for league. I just followed my lineman and they kept the holes open for me and I just ran hard and with a purpose,” Nwosu said.
Nwosu’s game could have been even bigger if not for two long touchdown plays, one a 73-yard run and the other an 87-yard screen pass, being called back because of penalties.
“First half was a little sloppy with penalties but we were really happy with how hard the guys played. We needed that momentum going into league,” said Chargers head coach Nate Mendoza.
Four of Nwosu’s touchdowns came in the first half when the Chargers built a 39-14 lead. He had 255 combined rushing and receiving yards in the first half alone.
“Manny played tonight the way we’ve expected him to. Probably fed him the ball a lot more than we usually have but he responded extremely well,” Mendoza said.
Dos Pueblos’ biggest lead was 53-21 when Blake Erwin found a hole and took off for a 47-yard scoring run with 25 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Kellen Roberts completed 16 passes and totaled 237 yards with three touchdown passes. He connected with Tommy Johnson for the team’s second score on a deep 42-yard pass to the pylon. A 42-yard touchdown to Nwosu was a horizontal pass at the line of scrimmage that allowed Nwosu to race down the sideline and into the end zone. Roberts also orchestrated a 70-yard drive at the end of the first half, finding Marcellous Gossett across the middle for a 38-yarder.
“We didn’t do much tackling unfortunately. That was definitely a downside for us is that they had very good people that we didn’t match up very well with and we didn’t tackle very well,” said Warriors head coach Ben Hallock.
Carpinteria’s offense came mostly through the air. Junior quarterback Mike Garibay finished with 252 yards passing and three touchdowns. Two went to Brandon Jordan and the third to Jax Montgomery on a 73-yard crossing pattern. Aaron Vargas then broke a long touchdown run with 1:30 left in the game.
Dos Pueblos improves to 2-4 on the season while Carpinteria falls to 0-5.
The Chargers are at Buena next week for their Channel League opener while Carpinteria hosts Santa Paula in a non-league game.
Manny Nwosu runs free in through the Carpinteria secondary. (John Dvorak/Presidio Sports Photo)
