When the Santa Ynez Pirates football team traveled to Carpinteria High School last year, the game became a shoot-out, with four touchdowns scored in the final quarter. The Carpinteria Warriors won that game 42-28, claiming the “Pirate Pride/Warrior Spirit Never Dies Trophy.

This year the Pirates won the trophy back with defense, beating the visiting Warriors 14-7.

“Both sides were tougher on defense this year,” said Santa Ynez coach Josh Cunningham following the game.

Both teams exhibited stout defenses early on. Santa Ynez had a yard to go on their third down of the game. Quarterback Billy Peters tried to sneak it over the line, only to be denied by big Casey Noveski of Carpinteria.

The Warriors offense would not fare much better however. After making two first downs, the Pirate secondary would force one incomplete pass, followed by a batted down ball by Chase Yost, forcing a punt.

Carpinteria kicker Joel Vasquez had a tremendous night, aside from a missed field goal. His first punt of the game took a friendly hop, pinning the Pirates to their own 4 yard line.

Peters and Co. could not get out of their own end zone, and punted back to the Warriors, only 36 yards out. The defense stepped up however, with the line forcing a third down and long five situation. Starting quarterback Eric Stein threw to a tight end, but Santa Ynez standout Kyle McQuitty was there to make the interception.

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Two plays later, Peters would roll to the right and hurl a 44 yard reception to Adam Johansen to move the Pirates into enemy territory. The top Santa Ynez rusher Justin Iniguez would be handed the ball on second down, and would proceed to run over the Warriors left side on his way to a 32 yard touchdown run. Tackled at the line, he stretched the ball out behind him to break the plane of the end zone. The extra kick by Austin Bartoo would be good.

Iniguez would end the evening with 106 yards on 18 carries.

Defense on both sides continued to rule the day. The Warriors would start their next possession strong, gaining three first downs and moving the ball up to midfield before a fumble, caused off of a solid hit by Pirate Casey Harris, would be recovered by Peters playing as a linebacker. Santa Ynez would take over on the Carpinteria 48, but an interception on third down would give the ball back thanks to Jon-Paul Jimenez.

Jimenez had space along the right sideline after the interception, and had only Peters to beat. Instead of sprinting for the end zone however, the Warrior opted to cut toward the quarterback, who made the open field tackle to save what could have been a touchdown.

Starting on the 25 yard line of Santa Ynez, the Carpinteria squad came up empty with a 1 yard run, a fumbled hand off, and an incomplete pass. Vasquez, who averaged 50 yards a punt, ended up short on the ensuing 41 yard field goal attempt.

“A fact in the game, but it bodes well for us in the future, is that we had two of our starting seniors come out in the first quarter,” said Warrior head coach John Hazelton, who struck an upbeat tone despite the loss. “A lot of young players were on that field tonight and did well.”

Among them was sophomore quarterback Freddy Maldonado, who took the quarterback position, following Stein taking a hard sack late in the first half.

Maldonado was lukewarm in the air, going 5-10 for 47 yards and one interception, but burned the Pirates with a 60 yard QB keeper early in the second half.

The Pirates would eventually answer back on a 43 yard drive. Injured running back Brad Petersen made a brief appearance for the Pirates, running out of the backfield for a 12 yard gain, taking his team to the 1 yard line. Peters (6-19 122 yards) would take the ball in himself, diving over the line for the winning touchdown.

At the conclusion of the game, the trophy was awarded back to the Pirates. For Carpinteria, J.P. Jimenez was named the MVP, while Santa Ynez named McQuitty and defensive leader Enrique DeLeon as CO-MVP's.

The Carpinteria Warriors (0-2) return to their field to host Templeton.

Santa Ynez improves to 2-1 as the Bucs face their first Los Padres League opponent this Friday, when they hit the road against Templeton.

Glenn Wallace can be reached at 688-5522, Ext. 6007 or gwallace@santamariatimes.com