Carpinteria Will Escape With Its Honor Intact

St. Bonaventure’s game Friday night at Carpinteria, which loomed as the Tri-Valley League title showdown, stacks up as a grotesque mismatch after Coach Coley Candaele of Carpinteria handed out a one-week suspension to 15 players, including 12 starters.

Candaele said the players were suspended for violating the school’s athletic honor code. A source close to the program said the suspended players attended a party last weekend at which alcohol was served.

Candaele declined to identify the players but his statement, “We’re devastated in the offensive backfield and at linebacker,” suggests quarterback and linebacker Ryan Gocong, the league’s top player, will miss the game.

St. Bonaventure (5-3, 3-0 in league play) Coach Jon Mack said he admires Candaele for taking a stand.

“My hat’s off to Coley for having the morals to say this is not going to be allowed in my program,” said Mack, whose team is two-time defending league champion.

Carpinteria (6-2, 2-0), which finished second last year and third in 1996, won four league titles from 1990-95. The Warriors finished in a three-way tie for the title with St. Bonaventure and Oak Park in 1991. That year five suspended Warrior starters missed the St. Bonaventure game for a violation of the honor code. Carpinteria lost that game but rebounded to win the Southern Division IX title.

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Paraclete and Kilpatrick will play Friday night at Antelope Valley College to determine the Alpha League title.

Paraclete (7-1, 2-0), in its first season in the Alpha, won consecutive High Desert League championships in 1996 and ’97.

Kilpatrick (4-4, 3-0) hasn’t won a league championship since joining the Alpha in 1992.

Coach Sid Ware of Malibu-based Kilpatrick is concerned with the chance of cold weather in Lancaster.

“We’re definitely practicing at night at least twice this week to try to get used to the colder weather,” he said.

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Despite Canyon’s 27-24 victory over Burroughs on Friday, Coach Larry Mohr was less than impressed by the effort turned in by his Cowboys, who have developed a reputation as a tough, smash-mouth team.

“We played as poorly as we have in two years,” Mohr said. “We got pushed around and they out hit us. We played with no emotion and no intensity.”

Mohr challenged his players to give him a reason for the lack of intensity at practice on Monday.

“I wrote on the board, ‘why,’ and said nobody leaves the room until we figured it out,” Mohr said. “If I knew, I’d bottle it up and sell it.”

Mohr hopes the players figure it out before their game Friday night against Valencia. A Cowboy victory would set up a Foothill League title game against Hart the following week.

“I told the team [Valencia] is the biggest game of their high school career,” Mohr said. “And if we win [Hart] will be the biggest game of their lives.”