Bishop Diego was on a promising drive in the first quarter when Owen Skinner fumbled and Santa Maria linebacker Omar Hernandez recovered on the Santa Maria 25.

The rest of Skinner's night? It went just fine. He wound up with 143 yards on 17 carries, with a five-yard touchdown catch and a 22-yard run for the last score of the game. Things were grand for his teammates most of the rest of the night as well. The visiting Cardinals from Santa Barbara routed the Saints 48-12 at Santa Maria's Dave Boyd Field.

Bishop Diego is 2-1. Santa Maria dropped to 1-1. The Saints scored their touchdowns in the second half on runs of 20 and 10 yards by fullback Halston Chapman who wound up with 155 yards on 25 carries.

The score was 41-0 at halftime, and things were as one-sided to that point as the score indicated. Thanks mainly to their huge first half, the Cardinals finished with 415 yards rushing and 558 yards of total offense.

“We didn't come out ready to play,” said Santa Maria coach Barney Eames. “We're a young team, and we're just making way too many mistakes right now.”

Both teams had solid weeks of practice. Only one team benefited.

“Everyone wants to win on Friday nights,” said Bishop Diego coach Tom Crawford. “We've been telling the guys that what you do to prepare determines who's going to win on Friday nights.”

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“We had a good week of practice,” said Eames. “We thought we were ready to play this game. We really did. But that's the way it goes sometimes.”

How it went for Bishop Diego's offense after that early lost fumble added up to five possessions, five touchdowns.

For good measure, John Uribe read a Daniel Gauna pass in the flat as well as a defensive back could read it, picked it off and ran 55 yards for the last score of the half.

After Skinner's fumble, “We were really pleased with how the defense responded,” said Crawford. How the unit responded was to make the Saints punt after four plays.

Seven plays later, an alone Craig Kohler caught Christian Winnewisser's pass at the Saints 35 and ran in for a 69-yard scoring play.

Skinner caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Winnewisser, and Jason Ford caught Winnewisser's two-point conversion pass to make it 14-0 with 1:22 left in the first quarter.

The night was crisp, and so was the Cardinals' execution. The Saints, meanwhile, seemed to be in a second quarter fog. Bishop Diego scored 27 points then, with touchdowns on Tucker Stein's 28-yard run off tackle; runs of six and 20 yards by Josh Kohansamad; and Uribe's interception return.

Up until halftime, good open field tackling by Johnny Castillo and Steven Grigg were about the Saints' only highlights. The Cardinals picked off four Gauna passes Friday evening.

Defensive linemen Scott Winnewisser and Don Deaile had been mainly responsible for stuffing the Saints' offense in the first half. Santa Maria's attack finally got some things to work in the second.

What mostly worked were Chapman's quick hitters. Good faking in the backfield by Gauna helped too. Chapman went in for his first score behind blocks by linemen Brandon Scott and Jose Pereyra and his second on good blocks by Pereyra and Rene Heredia.

Linebacker Robert Rodriguez and defensive back Jacob Zarate helped Santa Maria's defense shut out the Cardinals after intermission until Skinner's score.

“I was proud of how the kids came out in the second half and showed some heart,” said Eames.

Bottom line, though, “Obviously we didn't play very well.”

The Cardinals, on the other hand, played the first half about as well as a team can play. The big first half helped Bishop Diego players to some awesome rushing numbers as the Cardinals constantly won up front on both sides of the ball.

Kohansamad had 113 yards on just nine carries. Second string quarterback Uribe had 62 yards on four rushes, and Stein had 73 yards on only five carries.

Bishop Diego's fortunes have reversed dramatically since Nipomo shut out the Cardinals 12-0 in Bishop Diego's opener.

“This was our third game, and it was only Santa Maria's second,” said Crawford. “We got a lot of confidence from last week,” when Bishop Diego beat San Pedro-based Mary Star of the Sea 31-7.

Santa Maria plays at 7:30 p.m. next Friday at King City.

Sept. 16, 2006