It was an all-out war in the trenches.

Friday night at Warrior Stadium, San Luis Obispo had to take to the air to defeat Righetti, 33-8, in a battle of PAC-5 powers.

The defensive fronts for each team was formidable, shutting down the other's normally high-flying running game.

So SLO became the flying Tigers and flew to victory.

"They took our running game away," said SLO coach Craig Winninghoff. " Righetti's front eight had an outstanding effort against our running game but it opened up our passing game."

"I was pleased with our defense," said Righetti coach Greg Dickinson. "But it was a dominating performance by the Tigers."

The Tigers' defense kept Righetti from building any momentum.

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The first four times Righetti had the ball, the Warriors went three-and-out. Their fifth possession lasted just one play, with the Tigers' Bruce Brown intercepting Warriors quarterback Jonathan Dally. Righetti didn't pick up its first and only first down of the first half until their sixth possession, with 6-minutes left in the second quarter. That drive stalled when running back Mark Malangko was dropped for a two-yard loss on a fourth down and two from the SLO 38.

Righetti's defensive front was equally effective.

SLO's lead running back, Phil Garza, was held to 67 yards on 25 carries. He gained almost half of those yards, 33 of them, on two carries.

"Their defense swarmed to the ball," Winninghoff said. "So we went to our passing attack."

And the pass is what destroyed Righetti's chances.

Tigers quarterback Dane Hodgson was 15 for 21 passing with two interceptions. The air attack was good for 210 yards and three touchdowns.

As the passing game clicked, it also opened up the ground attack just enough for Hodgson to scoot for two touchdowns, of 37 and 15 yards.

Their first drive featured the running attack. When that stalled, Winninghoff went to the air. Hodgson passed five times on their second drive, a nine-play, 60-yard march to the end zone that ended with a 17-yard pass to Brett Lowe.

Their fourth possession was two plays, 28-yards with a 13-yard TD pass to Evan O'Reilly.

That made it 14-0 SLO as the first half ended.

The Tigers blew it open in the third quarter. Operating from the shotgun, Hodgson raced around the left corner for a 37-yard touchdown run. Hodgon then hit Lowe with a 30-yard touchdown pass.

After a Jonathan Dally 15-yard touchdown pass to Ben Grover and a safety against SLO made the score 27-8, Hodgson scored on a 15-yard naked reverse to close out the scoring.

Righetti's regular season is over. They finish up 2-2 in the PAC-5 and 7-2-1 overall. They will likely have to go on the road for the first round of the CIF playoffs.

SLO (3-0, 7-1) has a PAC-5 first-place showdown next week at Arroyo Grande (3-0, 8-1) and then both SLO and AG will head to the playoffs.

November 8, 2003