Tehachapi at Yosemite (Oakhurst)
Friday, November 28, 2003
CLICK ON STORY FOR QUICK LINK!Warriors Win CIF Championship. Posted by the Tehachapi News
Tenacious Warriors Won't Let Badgers Get Untracked. Posted by the Fresno Bee
Tehachapi Triumphs Over Yosemite, 14-10. Posted by the Bakersfield Californian
Tehachapi versus Yosemite Game Statistics
The 2003 Warriors are the Valley Champions of the Sequoia Division large schools.
(Photo by Tom Shea, thswarriors.com)
Posted December 3, 2003, by the Tehachapi News Sports Staff WARRIORS WIN CIF CHAMPIONSHIP
OAKHURST - The old adage that defense wins championships proved true Friday as the Tehachapi High School football team defeated the Badgers 14-10 in Oakhurst to claim the 2003 CIF Central Section Championship.
The Warriors' stellar defensive effort, that included three fourth-quarter interceptions, allowed the Badgers inside the THS red zone just twice in the entire game and a mere 47 yards rushing.
What may be the most remembered interception of the game came in the final play as Anthony Scott picked off Yosemite's last ditch passing effort near the 30. Warrior Mike Faulkner and Kris Haycock also had fourth-quarter interception to stop the Badgers as Tehachapi whittled away at the clock with a four-point lead.
"I knew the game was over," Scott said after the game of his interception.
"It was a great game," Mike Faulkner said. "I have been waiting all year for this," Faulkner added as the Warriors celebrated for nearly 30 minutes after the game.
In the first quarter of the game, on Yosemite's opening drive, the Badgers completed four of seven passes and marched 80 yards in 11 plays to score on a one-yard run by TJ Grijalva.
Later in the second quarter, Yosemite had to settle for a field goal when the Warriors' defense stopped Yosemite at the six with 1:49 remaining in the half.
Yosemite finished the game with 17 completions for 272 yards.
"That was the best quarterback I have seen all year," Warrior linebacker Sean Finley said of the Badger QB. "He was really throwing all over the field in the first quarter but we started pressuring him later in the game." Finley ended the game with 11 tackles, four resulted in yards lost for the Badgers.
Emerging as the star of the game on both side of the ball, Warrior Kris Haycock intercepted a Yosemite pass and ran back a 70-yard touchdown to put Tehachapi on the scoreboard in the second quarter.
Later in the first half it was Haycock, at quarterback, who turned what appeared to be a broken play into paydirt as he scrambled away from Badger defenders to score the winning touchdown on a 39-yard run. Haycock then connected with Josh Lange on the PAT for two points and a 14-6 lead.
"It was the ultimate way to go out," Haycock said. "It was such a close game. I am in total elation," he beamed.
Haycock completed two of nine passes in the game. Matt Patience caught a 28-yard pass in the first quarter and Mike Papac hauled in a 21-yard pass in the second.
Yosemite keyed on Tanner Hutchinson, keeping him out of the end zone for the game, but he did rush for 198 yards (of the Warriors' total 270 yards) on 28 carries. Hutchinson had one TD called back when a midfield clip negated the play.
Over the season the Warriors steadily improved as the team gelled into "Giant Killers" as they knocked off the number one (Washington Union) and number two seeded Yosemite in the California Interscholastic Federation Central Section playoffs.
The Warrior defense applied pressure all night long on the badgers. Yosemite quarterback Shawn Long rushes a pass in 4th quarter action. (Photo by Tom Shea, thswarriors.com)
Posted November 29, 2003, by JOSH SCROGGIN, The Fresno Bee Tenacious Warriors Won't Let
Badgers Get Untracked
OAKHURST -- Down seven points to No. 2 Yosemite High in the first quarter of the Sequoia Division Large School final Friday, someone let No. 4 Tehachapi in on a big secret.
"They caught onto the fact that we couldn't run the ball," Yosemite coach Aaron Eames said.
By the end of the first quarter everyone else had, too.
The Warriors were able to take advantage of an exposed Yosemite offense and held on for a 14-10 victory to keep the Badgers from becoming the section's only repeat champion.
Yosemite got a final chance to make a scoring drive after fielding a Tehachapi punt at midfield. But after moving the ball successfully up the sideline on two consecutive plays, receiver Jake Dodderidge was caught between the hash marks after a middle screen left him with no sideline in sight.
The Badgers had no timeouts left, and quarterback Shawn Long's final pass was intercepted by Mike Faulkner as time expired. It was Long's fourth interception of the game but not his costliest.
That one came first. With 8 minutes, 57 seconds left in the second quarter and Yosemite having little trouble moving the ball, Tehachapi's Chris Haycock jumped on a quick-out pattern by Dodderidge and intercepted Long's pass. With no one left between him and the end zone, Haycock sprinted 43 yards to cut Yosemite's lead to 7-6.
Tehachapi's Troy Royer fumbled the snap on the extra-point attempt and was tackled immediately.
The missed extra point became moot on Tehachapi's next drive.
Haycock, also the Warriors' quarterback, took a fake counter and rolled to his left. Instead of running out of bounds, Haycock was able to turn the corner and scramble 38 yards for his second touchdown.
His pass to Josh Lange on the 2-point conversion gave Tehachapi a 14-7 lead going into the second half -- a lead Yosemite normally wouldn't worry about being able to overcome.
The Badgers had not scored fewer than 24 points in a game all season.
"If our defense only gives up 14, we should win the game," Eames said.
And with two runners, E.J. Grijalva and Alex Campbell, nearing 1,000 yards for the season, Yosemite should have been able to run the ball as well. But the Tehachapi defense didn't allow the Badgers any room.
"We never saw a defensive front like we saw tonight," Eames said.
The Badgers got a 23-yard field goal from Casey Lucas with 57 seconds left in the third quarter but were shut out in the fourth.
Early in the game, Yosemite was able to keep its inability to run disguised with a near-perfect passing game. On the game's first drive, the Badgers marched 80 yards in 31/2 minutes after the opening kickoff dribbled into the end zone. Long connected on 5 of 6 passes on the drive, and running back Grijalva punched it in from 1 yard out. The extra point made it 7-0.
Scoring the Warriors' first touchdown of the game, Kris Haycock crosses the Yosemite goal line alone after intercepting a pass at the THS 30. Haycock went on to score the game-winning TD in the second quarter on a 38-yard run. (Photo by Michael Duffy, Tehachapi News)
By MATT HURST, Bakersfield Californian staff writer, posted November 29, 2003 CHAMPIONS!
Tehachapi Triumphs over Yosemite, 14-10
OAKHURST -- Kris Haycock and Tanner Hutchinson had a snapshot taken together holding their new piece of hardware, smiling and holding their index fingers in the air.
It was only fitting that two of the main reasons the Tehachapi High football team beat Yosemite on Friday night to win the Sequoia Division Large School championship were photographed together to hold the memories because odds are those are the two players Yosemite High will remember most.
Haycock scored both Warrior touchdowns and Hutchinson led a ground attack with 212 yards on 28 carries en route to a 14-10 victory over Yosemite, giving Tehachapi its first California Interscholastic Federation section championship since 1993.
"It feels great," was all Hutchinson could think of to say while being mobbed by fans, friends and teammates.
The victory is the second Central Section championship for the Warriors (10-3) since moving from the Southern Section in the early 1990s. Tehachapi won a pair of Southern Section titles in the 1980s. The win over Yosemite is the Warriors' ninth straight this season and avenges a defeat to the Badgers in last season's playoffs.
"It's nice to just win, whomever we play," Tehachapi coach Steve Denman said. "Some kids were here last year, but it's a non-issue."
Denman, along with Yosemite coach Aaron Eames, credited Tehachapi's defense for the victory. The Warriors forced four turnovers, one of those going back for a touchdown.
In the first quarter, Haycock intercepted a Shawn Long pass and returned it 63 yards for a touchdown to narrow Yosemite's lead to 7-6. It was the first of two interceptions in the game for Haycock, who didn't even play football last season.
"We had been working on (their offense) in practice," Haycock said. "They threw the hitch and I read it and it fell into my hands and I took off."
Eames felt the interception gave Tehachapi momentum.
"That interception was huge," he said. "We gave them an easy six.
"Their running defense was too stiff tonight. We were not able to run the ball and that's a real tribute to their front seven. They forced us to throw."
And even when Yosemite (11-2) threw, it came with limited results. While Long passed for 286 yards, Tehachapi intercepted four passes, equalling the number of interceptions thrown during the regular season by Long. In the playoffs, eight of his passes were intercepted.
T.J. Grijalva started the scoring, running in from 1 yard in the first quarter to give the Badgers a 7-0 lead. After Haycock's interception brought it within one, Haycock scored on a 39-yard run with 1:47 left in the half. His pass to Josh Lange for the two-point conversion was good.
Tehachapi had another chance to score, recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. However, Haycock's pass was intercepted in the end zone by Jake Dodderidge to send the game into the half with the Warriors up 14-7.
After the break, Tehachapi's stingy defense didn't allow much. The Warriors forced three punts and had interceptions on the final three Yosemite drives.
"I couldn't ask for more," Haycock said. "We've been playing like that all year and there's not a better time to execute. We're a defensive team."
It had Yosemite believing.
"That would be the big thing I'd say," Eames said. "Our defense got us the ball plenty, we just couldn't do anything with it."
The Badgers' lone score in the second half came after an 89-yard slant pass from Long to Jon Blea. On third-and-12 from their 7, Long completed a pass to Blea over the middle. The sophomore receiver was pulled down at the Tehachapi 4-yard line. A negative yardage run and two incompletions led to a 23-yard field goal by Casey Lucas to make it 14-10.
Hutchinson and Co. kept Yosemite's defense on the field long enough in the second half to make a difference. While the Warriors didn't score in the final two quarters, Hutchinson ran for 146 yards, much of it coming on second and third efforts.
"Tanner is a hard kid, a special kid," Denman said. "He kept fighting. He has a great work ethic. They almost got him down three and four times and he wouldn't stop. Last year he was hurt and didn't play to his full potential. He has done a tremendous job for us."
Hutchinson had two large runs in the second half, one bringing Tehachapi out from the shadow of its goal line. Hutchinson gained 69 yards on a third-down sweep that took the Warriors from their 4 to the Badger 32. His other long run went for a touchdown but was nullified by a personal foul penalty.
"Our offensive line stepped up," Hutchinson said. "We played like a whole team."
Eames said Hutchinson was "a pretty good player, but he wasn't a factor. But, we couldn't run the ball."
Warrior tight end Mike Papac picked up 21 yards after a pass from Kris Haycock in second quarter action
at the THS 45-yard line. (Photo by Michael Duffy, Tehachapi News)
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Tehachapi | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Yosemite | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
Scoring Summary
First Quarter:
Y--Grijalva 1 run (Lucas kick)
Second Quarter:
T--Haycock 63 interception (kick failed)
T--Haycock 39 run (Haycock pass to Lange)
Third Quarter:
Y--FG Lucas 23
| THS | YHS | |
| First Downs | 0 | 0 |
| Rushes-Yards | 47-286 | 17-25 |
| Passing Yards | 54 | 286 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 3-9-2 | 18-39-4 |
| Total Yards | 340 | 311 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Penalties | 0-95 | 0-55 |
Individual Statistics:
Rushing -- Tehachapi: Hutchinson 28-212, Haycock 7-31, Lange 10-38, Clark 2-2.
Yosemite: Campbell 12-19, Marr 1-10, Long 1-(minus-4), Grijalva 3-0.
Passing -- Tehachapi: Haycock 3-9-2-54. Yosemite: Long 18-39-4-286.
Records -- Yosemite 12-1, Tehachapi 10-3.