The 2006 Warriors are #1 Kyle Herman, #2 Adam Greenwood, #3 Franky Rodriquez, #4 Ehren Ochsenrider, #5 Stefen Bekker, #6 Garrett Coontz, #7 Josh Schulgen, #8 Leigh Stone, #9 Derek Lange,
#10 Jeff Corey, #11 Levi Lantz, #12 Josh Carmichael, #13 Tyler Hack, #14 Steve Miller, #16 Josh Carmichael, #17 Chris Marsik, #18 JJ Balkar, #20 Louis James, #21 Will Clark, #22 Kelly Lorenz,
#23 Chris Hutto, #24 Chris mendoza, #25 Josh Strauss, #26 Steven Bajorek, #27 Marcus Hutado, #28 Jeff Waldram, #30 Jessy Buff, #31 Jake Harris, #32 Aaron Moore, #33 Louie Olofson, #34 Gabe Bressler,
#40 Gabe Naboa, #42 Robert Gibson, #44 Alek Taliulu, #45 Cameron Harris, #47 Richard Kiser, #52 Steven Tercy, #53 Matt Hall, #54 AJ Meza, #55 Cameron Hood, #56 Robbie Montoya, #60 Steven Buher, #62 Cory Darling,
#64 Byran Beaulieu, #66 Sherwin Smith, #67 Evan Mcbride, #70 Nick Engraf, #72 Greg Embry, #75 Mike Gonzales, #77 Kyle Green, #78 Anthony Maravigli, #80 Daniel Conde, #81 Shawn Pimentel, and #85 Muchal Fimbres.
Review by Tom Shea, thswarriors.com Warriors Finish at 6-5 in 2006
3rd Place in SSL
It was a roller-coaster ride of a season for the Tehachapi Warriors, and in the end, Mountain Football found their offensive groove in the latter half of the season to post their 56th winning season in school history with a 6-5 (3-2 SSL) record and the school’s 35th post-season appearance.
Tehachapi’s path in 2006 took a bumpy start from the gate, with the Warriors playing at the earliest date in school history on August 25th with the eventual Division III CIF champion Garces Rams. Ironically, the Warriors first two opponents of the year in Foothill (scrimmage) and Garces were the two teams that ended up in the section title game in December. Louis James had a solid receiving night for Tehachapi, catching four passes for 88 yards, while Gabe Bressler fueled the ground game with 90 yards on 17 attempts. Levi Lantz scored Tehachapi’s lone touchdown on a quarterback keeper in the fourth quarter in a 33-7 loss.
There was no rest for the weary one week later, with the Warriors having a date with defending CIF Southern Division VIII Section champion Burroughs-Ridgecrest. Burros, coming into the game with a loss against Eagleton Colorado, found limited success against a tough Mountain defense, which limited Ridgecrest to only 53 yards on the ground. Gabe Bressler was virtually a one-man show on offense, amassing 198 yards and three scores to give Tehachapi the 27-10 win.
After dropping a heartbreaker to Righetti-Santa Maria in week three 14-12, Tehachapi played host to Stockdale in week four and quickly welcomed their Bakersfield guests to a Tehachapi homecoming they wouldn’t soon forget. The Warriors broke the spirits of the Mustangs when Josh Schulgen returned a fumble 71 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, giving the Warriors a 21-6 lead that eventually ended up in a 35-12 route. The loss sent the Mustangs reeling, giving Stockdale a 0-4 record and the eventual quitting of seven players on the Stockdale team, which including feature back Kenny Shanahan who transferred to another school to finish off the football season.
The inspired win against the Mustangs was followed up with a 41-7 drubbing over Roosevelt-Fresno, which featured a Mountain Defense that pummeled the Roughriders at every turn in an eight-sack night, spearheaded by linebacker Alek Taliulu, who finished with eight tackles and two sacks. Stefan Bekker and Franky Rodriguez also caught a couple of touchdown passes to polish off the lopsided win.
Coming into league play, the game of the year for Tehachapi was front-and-center, and led by another strong defensive effort, Tehachapi kept Taft scoreless virtually the entire contest before the Wildcats countered with a late fourth quarter score and an eventual 7-6 win. Alek Taliulu had another monster night at linebacker, logging in 14 total tackles and leading a defense that tallied 12 sacks, three apiece by Matt Hall and Jake Harris and Garrett Coontz and Evan McBride both getting two sacks each.
In twist of misfortune, the Warriors fell one week later to eventual SSL champion Arvin by an identical 7-6 score when a late 2-point conversion from Ehren Ochsenrider to Shawn Pimentel was called back to an illegal man down field penalty. AJ Meza had six tackles and a sack in the game, while Taliulu led the team with 12 takedowns.
Sitting with a record of 3-4 and Shafter (6-1 record) coming into week eight, Tehachapi turned every head in the valley their direction at the conclusion of the contest when the Warriors posted the most points ever scored in school history, and most combined points in one game in a 75-42 win. The big win was sophomore Josh Strauss’s coming out party, with the shifty threat reeling in 187 yards on 16 attempts to couple Gabe Bressler’s team leading 197 yards on 21 carries. Both backs had ample running room in the game, helping Tehachapi to 508 yards rushing overall and seven touchdowns scored between them. Junior Will Clark helped Tehachapi to their record 75th point on a 30 yard run in the fourth quarter.
Looking to keep the offensive momentum moving, the Warriors turned in yet another dominating performance in week nine, this time over the Wasco Tigers in a 59-7 win. The game was arguably Tehachapi’s most complete victory of the year, with both the offense and defense firing on all cylinders in the 52-point differential shellacking. The Warriors opened up with a 40-0 score before halftime, with Stefan Bekker catching two Ehren Ochsenrider passes for touchdowns, and Josh Strauss scoring twice on the ground. Kelly Lorenz also scored two touchdowns at runningback, finishing the contest with a team leading 176 yards overall. Franky Rodriguez also set a new Tehachapi single play record when he took a handoff 99 yards for a touchdown, breaking the old mark set by Mark Ricker in 1980 against Mojave.
While the defense suffered a minor setback against Bakersfield Christian in week 10, the offense still was riding strong in a 52-38 win. Tehachapi amassed 479 total yards overall thanks in part to Louis James tallying 114 yards on the ground and Josh Strauss 167 yards rushing. Stefan Bekker and Alek Taliulu combined for 29 total tackles to guarantee Tehachapi a winning record on the year with their sixth win.
Tehachapi entered the CIF Central Section Division III playoffs as the ninth seed, facing off against eighth seed Kerman on the road. Gabe Bressler finished his final game as a Warrior with 104 yards on the ground, while Alek Taliulu had a season-high 17 tackles.
For the year, Tehachapi averaged an alarming 292.9 yards on the ground, and 3,926 yards overall. Gabe Bressler led Tehachapi with 907 yards and 12 touchdowns, followed by Josh Strauss with 641 yards and 10 scores. Louis James also had 577 yards rushing, including two 90+ yard runs from scrimmage, the first Tehachapi player to do that in a single season. In the receiving category, Stefan Bekker led the Warriors with five touchdowns and 257 yards and Ehren Ochsenrider had 606 yards passing and six touchdowns. On defense, Alek Taliulu finished with 144 total tackles while Seniors Stefan Bekker (80), Adam Greenwood (51), AJ Meza (49), and Jake Harris (40) also had strong marks on the year in tackles. Jake Harris led the team in sacks with 11, while AJ Meza and Matt Hall both had six apiece. Josh Schulgen finished with five interceptions.
Receiving All-SSL first team honors for Tehachapi in varsity football this past season were Greg Embry (offensive line), Gabe Bressler (runningback), AJ Meza (defensive line), Stefan Bekker (defensive back), and Alek Taliulu (linebacker). Receiving second team All-SSL were Sherwin (Bubba) Smith (offensive line), Shawn Pimentel (tight end), Louis James (runningback), Matt Hall (defensive line), Stefan Bekker (wide receiver), and Jake Harris (defensive end).
For a complete listing of Tom Shea’s 2006 “Weekly Warrior” articles on the team, please click here.
The Tehachapi Junior Varsity Braves finished the year with an 8-2 (4-1 SSL) record, while the Freshmen Indians had a 5-4-1 ( 3-1-1 SSL) mark.
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| OPPONENT | THS | OPP | L | GAME HIGHLIGHT | |
| Aug 25 | Garces | 07 | 33 | H | Levi Lantz: 1 TD run |
| Sep 8 | Burroughs (Ridgecrest) | 27 | 10 | A | Gabe Bressler: 3 TD's, 198 yds. rushing |
| Sep 15 | Righetti (Santa Maria) | 12 | 15 | A | Louis James: 1 TD, 102 yds. rushing |
| Sep 22 | Stockdale (Bakersfield) | 35 | 12 | H | Josh Schulgen: 1 TD, 71 yd. fumble return |
| Sep 29 | Roosevelt (Fresno) | 41 | 07 | A | Louis James: 1 TD, 134 yds. rushing |
| Oct 6 | Taft * | 06 | 07 | A | Josh Strauss: 1 TD run |
| Oct 13 | Arvin * | 06 | 07 | H | Stefan Bekker: 1 TD, 59 yds. rushing |
| Oct 20 | Shafter * | 75 | 42 | H | Gabe Bressler: 4 TD's, 197 yds. rushing |
| Oct 27 | Wasco * | 59 | 07 | H | Stefan Bekker: 2 TD pass receptions |
| Nov 3 | Bakersfield Christian * | 52 | 38 | A | Josh Strauss: 4 TD's, 167 yds. rushing |
* Denotes League Game
| OPPONENENT | THS | OPP | L | GAME HIGHLIGHT | |
| Nov 9 | Kerman | 12 | 35 | A | Josh Strauss: 1 TD run |
Senior Gabe Bressler (34) led the Warriors in rushing yards for the 2006 campaign by rambling for over 900 yards, tops in the South Sequoia League.
Bressler also led the Warriors in scoring with 12 touchdowns. Photo by Michael Duffy, The Tehachapi News