Carpinteria football fought until the final whistle Friday night, but an 82-yard run by Santa Paula’s lead running back late in the fourth quarter helped the Cardinals pull away with a 42-14 victory at Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium.

With the loss, Carpinteria has now lost five straight games, falling to 2-5 overall with a 1-2 Citrus Coast League record.

After losing its first game of the season, Santa Paula bounced back to sport a 6-1 overall mark with a 1-1 CCL record.

“We continue to work hard and we tell them to keep their head and we got three games left, we just know we got to keep working,” Carpinteria coach Mario Robinson said.

Despite the final score, it was a two-possession game late in the fourth.

After a two-yard touchdown run from Warriors quarterback Talon Trumble and an ensuing two-point completion to Sebastian Hernandez, Carpinteria trailed 28-14 with 6:57 left in the contest, clawing back from a 21-0 halftime deficit.

And after a great kickoff downed Santa Paula to start on its own 18, the momentum could have been shifting.

But in just one play, Santa Paula junior running back Allen Macias took the air out of the stadium.

Macias took a handoff, broke a pair of tackles, got up the right sideline and outran the rest of the Warriors’ defense, breaking off an 82-yard run with 6:43 left to all but seal the contest.

Macias finished with 213 rushing yards on 19 carries, scoring three touchdowns. He also added one reception for 13 yards.

“[Macias] is a big kid and he’s athletic and they had a handful with him tonight,” Santa Paula coach Myke Montoya said.

Montoya added that he was proud of the fact his team played “mistake-free” on Friday night, as the Cardinals did not commit a turnover.

The mistake-free play helped that the team jumped out to a 21-0 head start on the Warriors.

On the second play from scrimmage, Cardinal quarterback Izahah Mata found his receiver, Sebastian Cripe, who took a reception 61 yards for the score and the early 7-0 lead.

“When we get up early, it makes things a little easier for us and it’s better to play from the front end than behind, that’s for sure,” Montoya said.

Despite Macias leading the way on the ground, Mata had success through the air, completing 13-of-21 passes on the day for 214 yards and one touchdown pass. He also added another 30 yards on the ground along with a rushing touchdown.

Macias scored on the ensuing two possessions to put the Cardinals out in front 21-0, which was the halftime score.

Still, despite the score at the break, the Warriors moved the ball well.

After a three-and-out on the team’s first possession, Carpinteria ran 19 plays and gained about 100 yards on offense, entering the Cardinals’ side of the field multiple times, but always running out of gas.

“We were moving the ball, but we just have to eliminate the mistakes,” Robinson said.”We can’t get in third and long. We are not a third and long team. So we have to limit that because we did move the ball and we kept the game a bit close.”

Despite first-half struggles, the Warriors found the endzone on their first possession of the second half thanks to a trick play.

Judah Torres, who had a great game on the ground, had one of the luckiest plays of Friday night when he took a jet sweep and then threw the ball downfield to Jayson Dishion.

The ball came up a bit short, hitting a couple of Santa Paula defenders for what looked like an easy interception. Instead, the ball popped off a Cardinals helmet and Dishion snagged it out of the air, proceeding to run the final 30 yards into the endzone for a 58-yard score.

“We just knew we had to keep working,” Torres said. “We knew the game was not over and we had a lot of time left. We were in that game. It was tiring but we wanted to keep going.”

Along with that touchdown pass, Torres ran the ball 15 times for 105 yards.

“Torres always runs hard. He’s a very good player with a good attitude and he’s a great student with a 4.7 GPA,” Robinson said.

After a Santa Paula score on the next drive made the score 28-6, the Warriors drove the ball inside the 10-yard line but stalled out and their field goal attempt was blocked.

The Warriors stayed strong and came up with one more stop, allowing them to then drive the ball 72 yards on 10 plays to cut the score back within two scores before Macias put the game away.

“I’m always proud of them, win or lose. We just have to work hard and we’re proud of the work we have done to this point,” Robinson said.

Carpinteria takes on Cabrillo at home next Friday at 7 p.m.