Before a standing room only crowd at Coy Burnett Field in Tehachapi, the Warriors held on to defeat the Highland Scots, 21-14. The Warriors were chasing down the Scots talented running quarterback #7 Anthony Johnson, above, all night long. Johnson rushed for 94 yards and scored 1 TD.
Posted by thswarriors.com on November 19, 2007 SSL Ramblings ...
South Sequoia League Aiming For
Three Central Section Titles
The South Sequoia League has certainly positioned itself to make a major statement in local football circles if --- and that’s a big IF --- they can run the table and win three different Central Section division football titles in the next few weeks. Bakersfield Christian will get the first shot this Friday night when they travel to #1 seed Fowler for the Division V championship.
Taft, the number #1 seed, will play host to Chowchilla Friday night, and if they win, will again be home against the Corcoran-Exeter winner in the Division IV finale. Taft’s only loss of the season was against the Warriors.
The Warriors will host their long time rival Garces on the mountain. The Tehachapi-Garces winner will face the winner of the Foothill-Washington Union game for the Division III championship. In DIII games last Friday night, #4 seed Garces routed Golden Valley-Bakersfield, 51-25; #2 seed Foothill edged Dinuba 10-9 on a last second field goal; and #3 seed Washington Union defeated Delano, 35-24.
So is the game against Garces this Friday in Tehachapi the Ogilvie Bowl II? The inaugural Ogilvie Bowl I was held in Bakersfield earlier this year when Tehachapi defeated Garces 28-13 at Sam Tobias Field on August 24.
The now established Ogilvie Bowl is a tribute to the long-time successful coach of both Garces and Tehachapi. Ogilvie played for Garces and led the 1953 team to a Valley Championship from his quarterback position. One has to wonder what side of the field the former coach will sit on if he attends the game?
Garces and Tehachapi have been playing each other since 1946. A great rivalry. Heck, back then Garces was known as the St. Francis (School) Shamrocks --- with Tehachapi winning the first game 13-0. Since that time, the head-to-head series is tied 16-16 with two ties. But never have the two teams played when a CIF sectional championship was on the line. Never have the two schools played each other twice in one season. Garces has certainly improved since the summer time meeting --- but so have the Warriors. Coaches Denman and Fanucchi will have their boys ready, it should be an exciting and close game.
It was great to see a standing room only crowd at Coy Burnett Field for the Highland game. The stands were packed on both sides of the stadium. What’s unfortunate though is to see people waiting in line (on the north side of the stadium) to get into the stadium as the game was getting underway. The line stretched over 50 yards long, well over 100 people waiting in line as the opening kickoff sailed through the evening air. Tip of the week: arrive early for the game against Garces --- its going to be packed!
Speaking of Coy Burnett, the Warriors improved their all-time record at home to 32 wins and 7 losses in CIF playoff games (since Coy Burnett opened in 1958). The Warriors are notoriously tough in November and December because legend has it the home town boys are used to the high mountain altitude and can play tough in the windy, wet, bone-chilling climate on the mountain this time of year. That being said, the weather for the game against Highland was unusually pleasant for late November. More of the same good weather is predicted for the Garces game this Friday.
The Warrior running back threesome of Strauss, Mullen, and Lorenz continued their torrid rushing pace out of the Wing-T and now have over 2,700 yards rushing collectively. The possibility exists that the three runners could each surpass over 1,000 yards rushing --- a first in Warrior history.
Warriors Top Running Backs
GP Car Yds Lng TD Avg. Josh Strauss 11 146 908 54 7 82.5 Adam Mullen 11 93 890 84 14 80.9 Kelly Lorenz 11 118 918 82 14 83.5
Warrior fans can view all of the playoff bracketing in Division I-V if you follow this link to the CIF offices in Porterville:
http://cifcs.org/PlayoffBrackets/fall_playoff_brackets.htm
Warrior running back and defensive back Adam Mullen has come up with some big plays for the Warriors in 2007. Mullen returned a fumble for a TD against Highland Friday night to score the Warriors first TD. Photo by Mike Duffy, Summit Photography
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