Warriors do enough to stay undefeated

GOLETA -- Righetti High's defense was stellar the entire game. The Warriors' offense did enough right in the second half to break three long scoring plays.

That amounted to a good bottom line for the Warriors Friday night, a 27-7 non-league victory over Dos Pueblos at San Marcos High. Righetti stayed perfect, at 4-0. Dos Pueblos dropped to 1-3.

Righetti offensive guard Clayton Rios was able to enter the game in the second half, and he helped spring Ryan Mole for touchdown runs of 50 and 59 yards in the third quarter after the first half ended in a 7-7 tie.

"It made a big difference," when Rios, a 6-1, 255-pound junior, was able to come in, said Mole. "He's a good lineman." After his line opened a good hole on his second TD run, Mole did a lot of the work himself. He started left, went to the middle, stopped, changed directions twice, and sprinted for the score.

The Chargers actually did a good job of containing Mole most of the night. But the two long touchdown runs helped the Righetti speedster to a 191-yard night on 19 carries.

The reason Rios did not start was, "He was having back spasms," said Righetti coach Greg Dickinson. Those disappeared at intermission.

The Chargers' last chance went away after Righetti's Thomas Clark charged through a hole on the left side and sprinted 39 yards for the last touchdown with 4:01 left in the game.

Lineman Chris Thomas and linebackers Joseph Braun and Kyle McCaskey led a good Dos Pueblos defensive surge that shut out the Warriors until intermission after Righetti quarterback Josh Thomas scored on a 1-yard sneak to cap a 63-yard drive in the first quarter that took 5:49.

A pass interference penalty wiped out a Chargers interception on the drive.

"Hats off to DP," said Dickinson. "They played a good first half." The Warriors didn't help themselves with a lost fumble and an interception. For the evening, Righetti lost three fumbles and Thomas threw the one interception.

Mole fumbled three times and did recover his own fumble once. Part of his problem was, "I had my thumb taped up," he said. "I jammed it in practice. Then we took off the tape and it was no problem after that. (The thumb's) fine."

In the second half, Righetti's running game picked up despite two lost fumbles. The Warriors did most of their running behind Rios, center Andrew Jagoda and right tackle Kris Elliott.

Elliott and the rest of Righetti's defense got out of some jams in the second quarter. The unit's first big play came when linebacker Luke Deras forced a fumble by Cesar Rios at the Warriors 10 and defensive back Will Grossi recovered.

The Chargers had taken over at their 48 after their defense recovered Mole's fumble after he had gained seven yards.

The Chargers did score when quarterback Shane Lopes' 1-yard run finished off a 38-yard drive after the Warriors couldn't move following their big fumble recovery.

However, Mole wrecked the Chargers' next drive after he won a tussle with Dos Pueblos' David Marshall for the ball in the end zone. The Warriors' defense came up big again after the Chargers recovered Thomas' fumble at Righetti's 40 on the first play of the second half.

After a 3-yard gain on first down, good coverage by the Warriors' secondary forced two straight Lopes incompletions and a punt. Later, on fourth-down-and-three for the Chargers from the Righetti 33, defensive back Noah Winkles dropped McCaskey for a yard loss.

Even though the Warriors' defense was spending a lot of time at its end of the field, partly because of the offense's woes, defensive back Clark said the unit did not get discouraged.

"We just figured it was the peaks and valleys of a football game," said Clark. Righetti defensive backs Clark, Mole, Daniel Diaz and Lafe Viker did an outstanding job of pass coverage much of the night as Righetti won despite four turnovers and 11 penalties.

After Mole went on his 50-yard touchdown romp, that was pretty much it for the Chargers. Righetti had two more long scoring plays, its line put a much better pass rush on Lopes than it had previously, and Clark stuck with speedy Chargers receivers to knock away two Lopes home run balls.

October 5, 2002