Garces High star running back Sheldon Croney #1 breaks loose for big yardage in a game played earlier this season.
Croney is averaging 7.7 yards per carry this season and has scored 21 TD's. Photo courtesy of The Bakersfield Californian.
Posted by thswarriors.com on November 5, 2013 Ogilvie Bowl VII:
Warriors Travel To Bakersfield For League Finale
SEYL Title Game vs Garces On The Line
It's the game on the schedule the players circle during summer workouts. Nobody much talks about it.
The coaches will say we play one game at a time. But its the game the players are thinking about
all season long. And it's finally here, and it's a game with meaning --- again.
The Tehachapi Warriors will play the powerful Garces Rams in the annual Ogilvie Bowl, Friday night, November 8,
at Sam Tobias Field in Bakersfield. Game time is 7:30 pm.
Just like last season, at stake is a league championship as both schools are 4-0 in Southeast Yosemite League (SEYL) competition. For Garces, they are the defending league champions and the defending Central Section Division II champions. For Tehachapi, they will be playing the Rams in the league finale with a title on the line for the second straight year. Last year the Rams defeated Tehachapi, 21-7, at Coy Burnett Field.
The other looming factor in the game is the winner will earn a high seed in the Division II playoffs, set to begin Friday night, November 15. A high seed will earn homefield advantage throughout the playoff season.
Garces is currently ranked #11 in the Top 25 high school polls by both the Bakersfield Californian and the Fresno Bee. Tehachapi is not ranked in the either poll, respectively.These two schools have met 42 previous times in a long storied rivalry dating back to 1946. Garces holds a slight edge, 21-19-2.
The modern era of the rivalry saw the Rams and Warriors battle as members of the South Sequoia League (SSL) between 1992 and 2003. Every year it was either Garces or Tehachapi that won the league championship, further fueling the epic battles between these two schools. Garces, a private Catholic school, left the SSL in 2004 to join the SEYL.
Since 2004, Tehachapi continued to play Garces in non-league games, but the two schools also met three times in tension filled playoff games in 2007, 2010, and 2011.
While considered the underdog, the Warriors will enter the game with plenty of motivation, losing the last three times
they have faced the Rams. After a slow 1-2 start to this season,
the Warriors have reeled off six straight wins to boost their confidence.
Meet the 2013 Garces Rams
Garces is 7-2 this season under second year head coach Jim Maples. Maples overhauled the Rams offense in 2012,
using elements of the old Wing-T offense, but spreading out the field
to better utilize the talents of his skilled position players.
The results have been impressive the past two seasons. This year, quarterback Jake Pavletich #2 has completed 70 of 121 passes
for 1,299 passing yards and 14 TD's. His favorite targets are Dominic Frasch #8 (25 catches, 514)
and Jack Lundy #6 (24 catches, 416 yards).
The leading rusher is 6'1" 215 pound junior Sheldon Croney #1 with 1,714 yards and 21 TD's. Croney is averaging 7.7 yards per carry.
The Rams two losses this season were to San Luis Obispo, 21-34, and Bakersfield High, 7-56. Impressive non-league wins for the Rams
include narrow victories over San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno and Stockdale-Bakersfield.
Ogilvie Bowl VII
The annual contest between Garces and Tehachapi is now named the "Ogilvie Bowl" after long time coach Gary Ogilvie. The winner of the game gets to keep
the Ogilvie Bowl Trophy for one year --- with the trophy handed out for the first time in 2007.
Ogilvie was a standout quarterback for Garces during his playing days, guiding the Rams to their first ever Valley Championship in 1953 and serving as the school's head coach
from 1964-1969. During his six years at Garces, his teams won several South Sequoia League championships.
Ogilvie then moved to Tehachapi where he was the head coach two different times, from 1971 to 1974, and from 1979 to 1981.
During that period, his Warriors teams went 68-12, capturing four Desert-Inyo League championships and one CIF section championship.
Garces leads the Ogilvie Bowl series 4-2, and just like last years bowl game, an SEYL title is on the line.
QB Gary Ogilvie (1953)
