HUTCHINSON AND TEHACHAPI CORRAL THE BURROS
Posted 9-15-02
The Burros may pride themselves on being ‘relentless’, but the Warriors showed themselves to be ‘resilient’ last Friday night in a narrow 21-14 win over Burroughs High School.
In the beginning of the second quarter, wingback Tanner Hutchinson scored the second of his game leading three touchdowns when he broke through the right side of the Burro line for a comfortable 14-0 halftime lead. Both Hutchinson scores capped off impressive drives by the Warrior attack, with the majority of the carries coming from Tony Troffer, Josh Lange, and Hutchinson. However, against the no-huddle Burroughs pro-set offense, no lead is safe.
Burroughs came out of the gates firing in the second half with 112 total yards in the third quarter when Philip Madison capped off a 32 yard drive started when Tehachapi fumbled on offense after taking the opening kickoff. Burroughs later tied the game with 4:30 to go in the third when Will Johnson hauled in a Nolan Toftner 21 yard touchdown pass, but Tehachapi took control of the game from there.
After a Tehachapi missed field goal, the Warrior defense held their ground against the Burro attack forcing a three-and-out. After a short yardage punt, Tehachapi had great field position at the 50-yard line. Six plays later, Hutchinson took the lead for good when he took a Greg Sanchez handoff off the right side for a 10-yard score.
“We had good blocking on the line and the other running backs moved the ball down the field and opened things up. The line deserves the credit (for this win), they really helped us get the yards we needed.” said Hutchinson.
Burroughs would threaten late in the fourth, but the Warrior defense shut the door when a sack by Alfredo Yttesen on fourth down gave the ball back to the Tehachapi offense for the kneel down and the end the game.
“We just came out and played ball today and we had a good game,” said Booker. “We fought hard, and we got the win, and that’s all that matters.”
The Warrior defense racked up six sacks, four pass deflections, and 41 total tackles including giving up only 27 yards to Burroughs in the fourth quarter to seal the win. The defense was lead by Nick Booker who had 7 tackles, a sack, and a key interception with two minutes left in the fourth to halt a late comeback attempt by the Burros offense.
We thought they’d be tough in this game, but we didn’t know how tough they’d really be. We showed who was the better team.” added Booker.
Along with Booker, Hutchinson carried
the load for the Warriors, reeling in 115 yards on 18 carries along with
Tehachapi’s three scores. For both players’ accolades, they are both
selected as players of the week. Other notable performances included Troffer
racking up 122 yards on 23 carries, Lange with 76 yards on 13 carries, Jed
Ingraham with seven tackles and a sack, and Josh Christy with five tackles and a
pass deflection.
Tanner Hutchinson and Nick Booker
WEEKLY WARRIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
WEEKLY WARRIOR NOTES
-On paper, it seems that the road might get a little smoother for the Warriors in their pre-season schedule with upcoming games against Foothill, Tulare Union, and Delano, but unfortunately for Tehachapi, they don’t play football games on paper. Next weeks opponent brings a rematch of last year’s ‘week 3’ match-up with Foothill and talented quarterback Dan Ingle. Last year, Ingle completed 18 passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-17 losing effort against the Warriors at home. One of the recipients of those touchdowns was now senior Joesph Valdovinos, who this season has caught 13 passes for 179 yards against North-Bakersfield and West-Bakersfield High. Last year, Ingle threw up impressive numbers on the opposition as a sophomore, completing 106 passes for 1,256 yards and 15 touchdowns, with three of those touchdowns and 332 yards came against the 13-0 CIF Champion Bakersfield Drillers. This year, it appears that Ingle is posed to put up similar numbers with 21 completions for 407 yards already added to the stat sheet, and with capable running in Gabriel Bustamante, the 0-2 Trojans could present some problems for the Warrior defense. After getting blown out by North-Bakersfield in week 1, Foothill looked like a more polished and balanced football team against West-Bakersfield, so it promises to be an interesting game on the road this Friday.
-Talk about domination. If Garces had any critics at all, they were all silenced after the drubbing of the San Joaquin Memorial Panthers 38-7 this past Friday. James Bailey seems to be the new addition to a vast multitude of weapons for the Rams, rushing for 126 yards on only 10 carries to lead the 325 yard ground assault over the #2 ranked Panthers. The schedule for Garces doesn’t get any easier however when they go on the road against Liberty and Dos Palos.
-Along with Garces and Tehachapi, it was a sweep for the South Sequoia League in Week 3, with other scores showing Shafter upending Highland 16-7, and Taft shutting out Woodlake, 35-0.
