Capitalizing on turnovers and showing great quick-strike capability, the Santa Ynez football team jumped on Carpinteria for three touchdowns in a little over minute and rolled to a 42-0 victory in the 68th edition of their rivalry on Friday at Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium.
The Pirates’ victory was their fifth in a row over the Warriors and puts them one win from tying the series. Carpinteria leads it 33-32-5.
Quarterback Bennett Redell threw four touchdown passes and ran for a score, and was named the game’s MVP. Redell completed 9 of 13 passes for 134 yards and was intercepted twice.
It was second game for the Pirates (1-1) while Carpinteria was playing its first game under new coach Mario Robinson.
It was a tough debut in other ways for Robinson as he saw two key players, center/linebacker Daniel Grimes and slotback/defensive back Jacob Macias, go down with what appeared to be serious injuries.
“Other guys are going to have to step up and play positions they normally don’t play,” the coach said. “It’s about helping the football team and taking on a role that you’re going to be able to succeed in and help out.”
Santa Ynez’s was ahead 7-0 and punting after going three and out on its second possession of the game.
That’s when things started to fall apart for Carpinteria. The punt by Anthony Gills hit an unsuspecting Carpinteria player in the back and the Pirates recovered the ball at the Warriors’ 38.
After a Santa Ynez penalty on first down, Redell hit Lars Ladinig on a 35-yard pass play. Three plays later, Bennett scored from the 1 and Quincy Valle’s PAT gave the Pirates a 14-0 lead at 4:18 of the quarter.
Carpinteria fumbled the ensuing kickoff at its 7 and Redell found Ladinig in the end zone on first down at the 4:11 mark to make it 21-0.
Carpinteria took a fair catch on the next kickoff at the 25,.The Warriors then turned the ball over again as Gills intercepted quarterback Will Collins at the 35 on second down.
Redel threw incomplete on first down and then passed to Logan Ast, who made a spectacular catch, reaching over the Carpinteria defender for the touchdown That put the Pirates up 28-0 at the 3:16 of the first quarter.
Logan AST catches 35-yard touchdown strike from Bennett Redell for Santa Ynez in 1st quarter of 42-0 win at Carpinteria pic.twitter.com/AYRiiiGos7
— NoozhawkSports (@NoozhawkSports) August 31, 2019
“You’re never going to win a football game if you make four turnovers in the first five minutes,” said Robinson. “Our offense and our special teams put our defense in some bad spots.
“We got to clean that up. It’s not the end of the world, but we got to get better. They’re going to continue to battle. That’s their character.”
Santa Ynez coach Josh McClurg was delighted with his special teams’ play.
“Special teams were huge,” he said. “I thought our special teams did great. Our kickers did great. Hats off to coach Danny Foy, he did a great job on special teams.
Santa Ynez also got stellar play from its defense. Led by game defensive MVP Tyler Germani, the Pirates smothered Carpinteria’s new spread offense.
“Our defense played lights out and this is something we wanted to address after some of the mistakes we made last week,” said McClurg. “We cleaned up things we wanted to.”
The Warriors didn’t come close to scoring in the first half. But they were knocking on the door in the third quarter after an interception by Diego Hernandez in the end zone. Hernandez was named Carpinteria’s MVP of the game.
“We came out in the second half and it was about pride and playing with heart, but that’s how we have to start the game,” said Robinson.
Behind the hard running of Tristan Kelly, and an 18-yard pass from quarterback Diego Mendez to Hernandez, the Warriors got to the Santa Ynez 1. They were stopped on second and third down and had a bad snap on the fourth-down play.
The Warriors had another scoring chance after Irving Garcia recovered a fumble at the Santa Ynez 16. But the Pirates’ defense held tough again and Carpinteria missed on a 37-yard field goal attempt.
Santa Ynez, which came up short in its fourth-quarter comeback against Nipomo last week, didn’t waste any time getting on the scoreboard Friday.
Redell hit receiver Camron Prendergast for 19 yards on the Pirates’ opening drive, running back Gills ripped off runs of 15, 11 and 7 yards and Redell capped the 8-play 83-yard drive with a 10-yard strike to Ladinig for the touchdown.
“I thought Bennett managed the game well. Ladinig stepped up and had some good plays,” said McClurg.
“We just played off their mistakes and played smart,” said Redell.
— Noozhawk Sports Editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.