Carpinteria Can’t Stop St. Bonaventure, Booker

MOORPARK — For three quarters Carpinteria High gave St. Bonaventure something it hadn’t had all season.

A game.

For the fourth quarter, St. Bonaventure gave Carpinteria plenty of Lorenzo Booker.

Booker scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to break open a 15-point game and lead the Seraphs to a 36-7 victory Saturday night in a Southern Section Division XI semifinal at Moorpark High.

St. Bonaventure (13-0), defending Division XI champion, plays Orange Lutheran on Saturday for the championship at a site to be determined after a coin flip today.

Booker rushed for 177 yards and three touchdowns in 23 carries but had only 70 yards rushing in the first half. Fifty-nine of his first-half yards came on a touchdown run that gave the Seraphs a 6-0 lead with 8:21 to play in the first quarter.

Carpinteria (6-6-1) answered with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that consumed seven minutes and resulted in quarterback Chris Gocong’s 18-yard touchdown run. The conversion kick gave the Warriors a 7-6 lead. It was only the second time this season St. Bonaventure trailed.

Jack Swisher, who completed eight of 16 passes for 181 yards, connected with Brandon Masscorro on a 54-yard pass play on St. Bonaventure’s next possession to put the Seraphs ahead, 12-7.

Carpinteria stopped the Seraphs inside its 10-yard line on their next possession, and Mike Barrow converted a 21-yard field goal.

The Seraphs opened a 22-7 lead when Swisher connected with Whitney Lewis on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 1:15 to play in the first half.

“I thought we were going to win, 50-0,” said Booker, who gained 107 yards in the second half and scored in the fourth quarter on runs of 29 and 19 yards.

Carpinteria, which lost, 35-3, in the regular-season finale to St. Bonaventure, held the Serpahs to 87 yards rushing in the first half.

“We went after them,” Carpinteria Coach Coley Candaele said. “Booker got a lot of his yards in trash time. If a team with more talent than us plays with the heart we showed tonight, St. Bonaventure can be beaten.”

The Seraphs out-gained Carpinteria 412 yards to 141. Gocong led the option-oriented Warriors with 47 yards rushing in 14 carries but completed only one of 11 passes for four yards. The completion came in the fourth quarter.