Oaks Christian pulverizes Carp

BY PETER DUGRE
DAILY SOUND SPORTS WRITER
It’s a well-known rule of fashion that dark colors slim and light colors bloat. The Oaks Christian Lions visited Carpinteria on Friday night and rumbled out onto the field in their road whites appearing twice the size of the home team.
When the Lions play against the Warriors the expectation is that the Lions will dominate, because as coach John Hazelton describes them, “They are a semipro team.” The Warriors have the advantage of being able to recruit players from outside their school district.

That is why coach Hazelton can call the effort of his Warriors, in a game which they lost 42-14, as their best game of the season.
The Warriors hung around until early in the fourth quarter when back-up quarterback Freddy Maldonado through a wet ball into the hands of the defense, before the Lions offense came onto the field and punched a touchdown in on an 18 yard run to stretch their lead to 35-14.
Coach Hazelton said, “I would like to think that if we lined up against them 10 times that we might eventually win, but we just don’t match up man to man against them. Our defensive end is 160 lbs and their left tackle is closer to 300.”
In the first quarter, the Warriors did more than hang by taking a 7-6 advantage. It took less than a minute and only four plays for the Lions to get in the end zone on a 14 yard run by running back Malcolm Jones. They could not convert on the point after so they only put up six.
The Warriors got the ball back and quarterback R.J. Rosborough kept for 26 yards on a risky fourth down call that paid off, before lofting a bomb down the sideline for a 50 yard touchdown to Eric Stein.
The Lions were mired by penalties the entire night and were slow to retaliate. Eventually, their triple-threat running game of running backs Jones and Ryan Landseadel and quarterback Christopher Potter were too much to contain for the Warriors who fell back 28-7 before the half.
Coach Hazelton was impressed by his teams toughness coming out of the locker room on the rainy night, down to their last quarterback after Rosborough was sidelined with a shoulder injury. They got it going early in the third quarter when Maldonado danced through the defense for an 18 yard touchdown to bring the score to 28-14.
On the next possession the Lions botched a punt to give the Warriors field position and a chance to pull within seven, but they were overpowered by the Lions defense and turned it over on downs.
It was a wet night that featured seven holdings for the Lions (4-2) as well as several illegal procedure calls. On two occasions they had lengthy touchdowns called back due to holding. Also, each team turned the ball over on a fumble trying to get a hold of the wet ball. The Carpinteria Warriors now stand at 2 wins and 4 losses.