SAN LUIS OBISPO - Righetti's version of the Jon Dally Show nearly earned the Warriors an upset victory over top-ranked San Luis Obispo on Friday night.

But the Tigers' double threat of senior tailback Phil Garza and senior quarterback Quinten Cate stole the show for SLO, which remained in the unbeaten ranks with a thrilling 49-39 home victory.

"We came out here and we played a unit. We're turning things around. A lot of people didn't expect us to put points up on the board against them," said Dally, who 292 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.

With Warriors' star tailback Mark Malangko (9 carries for 53 yards, TD) sidelined for the entire second half, Dally took on double duty, passing for 163 yards and rushing for 129 yards.

"You know what, they bleed just like we do, they put their pants on just like we do, they came out here 110 percent the whole game. It's just unfortunate that we had to lose," said Dally. "I put myself in the zone and I came up short a couple of times, but I had a brilliant team to work with."

San Luis Obispo was led by its one-two punch of Garza, who carried the ball 26 times for 325 rushing yards and four touchdowns, and Cate, who went 13 of 19 for 199 yards and three touchdowns.

"One thing I knew is every time we touched the ball we had to run it right back in," said Garza, who long surpassed 1,000 rushing yards for the season. "Every time we got the ball back we had to step it up and run hard and score because they were right on our tail."

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Righetti cut the gap to three on its opening drive of the second half when Dally ran in a touchdown from one yard out to make it 35-32.

"I've been playing this game my whole life," Dally said. "I just come out here and I want to win."

The Warriors had a chance when their defense - which set up Dally's opening score on a Chad Simpson pick just over two minutes in and scored another on Chad Stephens' 38-yard fumble recovery for a TD just before the half - forced SLO to punt for the first time.

But Righetti's next drive was a three-and-out, and three plays later Garza bashed his way into the end zone to extend the Tigers' lead back to 10 at 42-32.

"The kids played hard and I'm proud of them. They didn't give up," SLO coach Craig Winninghoff said. "You can always look at our defense and say we need to give up fewer yards or fewer points. But we're scoring more than other teams and we're getting the Ws and that' s important."

The Warriors again cut the deficit to three when Dally avoided the Tigers' pass rush and scampered in from 23 yards out to make it 42-39.

SLO, however, needed only two plays to re-claim a 10-point advantage on another Garza touchdown run.

"He had a real good game. We had designed plays, but when something's not available he has to tuck it and run it, and he did a good job of that," Righetti coach Gary Wilson said. "We just had to step it up a little bit more."

The Tigers escaped with their second straight tight victory, coming back to beat Lancaster last week, 39-38.

The Warriors dropped to 3-4 overall and 0-1 in the PAC-5, but Dally still believes his team is playoff-bound and beyond.

"We still have three more games in league and then still four more games in CIF. We plan on winning the CIF championship," Dally said. "You gotta have faith. It's not over till it's over. If you don't believe you are going to win the game, you don't belong on the field."

Oct. 16, 2004