WARRIORS REVERT BACK TO WINNING WAYS
Posted 10-27-02
Tanner Hutchinson (21) runs
for his 4th touchdown of the game, a 55 yard scamper, in the 2nd quarter of the
Arvin-Tehachapi game. The junior running back carried the ball just 9 times,
rushing for nearly 150 yards.
Ok everyone, you can breathe a little easier now.
There’s nothing like coming off the first loss of the year than producing one of best offensive production outputs of the season in a 43-9 drubbing of visiting Arvin.
There were a lot of highlights in this game, which is good for all involved. One, it gives me a lot of positive plugs to talk about, two, it makes the next week’s practice for the Warriors a little bit easier, and three, lets face it…confidence and momentum is a beautiful thing in this sport.
So lets get to some highlights, shall we?
To start things off, let’s look first at the mainstay of this year’s offense, Tanner Hutchinson. Every time it seemed that #21 touched the ball the reeling Bears didn’t have much of an answer for the standout junior. The first four times the Warriors touched the pigskin, the drive was capped off by…who else? Tanner Hutchinson, who led all players with 147 yards on nine carries and four touchdowns.
Of course, if you’re going by the stats provided by the Bakersfield Californian, it’s ‘Hutchenson’. But, I guess they got it close enough. At least it’s not as frustrating as going to a game and hearing ‘Trough-er’ instead of how it should be pronounced, ‘Troffer’, right Warrior fans?
Speaking of Trougher, er…I mean Troffer, #34 had another great night bruising the ball through the middle of the defensive line in helping Tehachapi secure it’s sixth victory of the season. Troffer’s 19-yard touchdown with 10:03 to go in the third put the game out of reach for the visiting Bears.
“(On the touchdown run) we ran the same play a couple of plays before it, just this time on the other side,” said Troffer. “We ran a buck sweep, everyone held their blocks and I just had to sidestep two corners to the endzone.”
Even though Troffer scored, there was a lot of little things that he did besides carry the ball that made him such an integral piece of the victory, some of the notable accolades being securing the outside lanes for Hutchinson so Tehachapi’s star wingback could have less to contend with when he made his cuts to paydirt.
Overall on offense, Troffer amassed 76 yards on eight carries, with his last carry the touchdown run, while on defense racking in two tackles, a sack, and three pressures to keep Arvin under single digits for the game.
Another player that did well for Tehachapi last week was Mike Wright, who gave the Bears fits in the secondary, logging in three tackles, a pressure, and an interception all in the first half.
“It feels good to get a win. Arvin doesn’t have the best record, but a win is good for the team, good for momentum,” said Wright.
For both players’ performances against Arvin, they have been selected as this week’s players of the week. Congratulations Mike and Tony!
Mike Wright and Tony Troffer
WEEKLY WARRIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Other players that did well was Greg Sanchez, who was 2-3 in passing, both completions going to Josh Christy for 25 total yards. Christy also did well on defense racking up three tackles and two sacks to his season total. Mike Faulkner shut down the middle of the field on defense, registering three tackles, a sack, and a pressure, and Anthony Scott did well in logging in three tackles, three pressures, and a sack.
WEEKLY WARRIOR NOTES
--- For a moment, let’s set aside the league title race for Tehachapi when looking at this week’s opponent in Shafter.
For playoff implications, this game is huge. More than the Garces game in two weeks, this one will help determine where the Mountain-Wing plays in the playoffs, and what seed they’ll be.
All in all, a win is important, but a convincing win wouldn’t hurt. However, don’t count on the Generals to make that task easy.
Shafter has all but completely scraped last year’s offensive dependence of the pass, the main reason being that All-SSL Quarterback Ricky Ishida is no longer with the team. That’s a sigh of relief for the Warriors, because last year Ishida blitzed Tehachapi for 17 completions, 235 yards, and three scores.
This year, Adam Hernandez has taken the helm, and has quietly reeled off 32 completions for 434 yards and five touchdowns. Much like last year, the Generals like to spread the ball to a plethora of players, some of which this year include the likes of Nick Abarca, Peter Frantz, and Matt Crown, who have together combined for 21 catches for 328 yards and three scores.
“Shafter will be tough, they hung with Garces a little bit in the first half, so we need to be ready to play them, it’s a key game for us,” said Tony Troffer.
To complement the pass, Shafter has added a sound ground game this year led by Jeff Watkins, who leads the team with seven touchdowns on 770 yards. As a change of pace, Shafter also likes to give the ball to James Zrofsky, who so far this year has tallied 401 yards and three touchdowns. In three games versus South, Arvin, and Washington Union, these two backs helped Shafter to over 300 yards on the ground.
“I thought we played good as a team last week, but we’ll need to step it up even more against the Generals. We have good chemistry right now, but we need to be ready to get out of the gates firing if we want to do well.” added Wright.
Playing Shafter at home doesn’t hurt, but playing them at all is never easy. They have averaged 10 first downs a game so far this year, so their offense can move the ball.
If defense does win championships, the Warriors will have to make their first step towards that goal this week.
--- A lot of action occurred this past week as far as the playoffs go. Potential number one seed Yosemite lost to small-school San Joaquin Memorial 35-14, handing the Badgers their first loss of the year. Kerman, who could very well move up to the large school playoffs because of their record and school size, also did a number on Sierra in a 27-20 victory. Not to be outdone was the surprise of the week, Selma, who knocked off Kingsburg 17-14. Again, Garces impressed all with their route of Wasco, and Dos Palos seems to be on the comeback trail after their shocking loss to Chowchilla.
*Garces (7-0) 54, *^Wasco (4-3) 14
*Taft (5-3) 28, *^Shafter (4-3) 6
San Joaquin Memorial (6-1) 35, ^Yosemite (6-1) 14
^Kerman (7-1) 27, ^Sierra (5-2) 20
^Selma (5-3) 17, Kingsburg (4-4) 14
Dos Palos (5-3) 44, ^Coalinga (6-2) 20
Chowchilla (6-2) 20, ^Washington Union (2-6) 0
^Dinuba (2-6) 14, Corcoran (2-6) 13
*-League Opponents
^-Potential Playoff Opponents
