Carpinteria High football dropped its third straight non-league game with a 43-10 loss to Santa Paula on the road on Friday.
The Warriors, now 1-3 on the season, will return home for their Citrus Coast League opener against Santa Clara on Thursday, Oct. 2.
“Even though the score didn’t indicate it, we did show improvement,” Carpinteria High head coach Van Latham said. “We made some good plays throughout the game, but we did not have the consistency we needed. We made too many mistakes, especially in the first half.
“We played an aggressive non-league schedule. Now it is time to use the experience to help us in our league opener next week.”
Despite the final score, the Warriors struck first following a Santa Paula fumble on the opening kickoff. Peter Casas nailed a 27-yard field goal to put Carpinteria up 3-0 early.
However, the Cardinals immediately answered with a scoring drive of their own to take a 7-3 advantage.
The Santa Paula offense caught fire from there, dominating the second quarter en route to a 28-3 halftime lead.
The Warriors bounced back out of the break with a 10-minute, 80-yard drive that ended with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Isaac Neri to Drew Filippini to cut the deficit to 28-10.
“The drive in the third quarter gave us an indication of what we are capable of,” Latham said. “We need to find that consistency for more than one drive, however.”
The Cardinals shook that off and regained control of the game, outscoring Carpinteria 15-0 down the stretch to pull away for the 43-10 win.