It was a tale of two halves for the Righetti High gridmen as they bumped helmets with PAC-5 rival Atascadero Friday night.

After a near mistake-free first half that landed the Warriors leads of 14-0 and 21-7 until a late Atascadero score made it 21-14 at the break, the wheels fell off in the final 24 minutes.

Righetti had two costly turnovers plus a missed field goal on its opening drive of the second half to let things slip away fast for a 42-28 road loss at Atascadero High.

“We just didn't come to play in the second half,” said Warriors coach Gary Wilson, whose squad dropped to 1-1 in PAC-5 and 4-4 overall. “We made a lot of mistakes. We didn't play mistake-free like we needed to.”

To make matters worse, senior tailback Chad Stephens' return to action after suffering an ACL injury back on Sept. 23 in Santa Barbara was cut short when he limped off the field early in the third quarter. Up until then, Stephen looked to be back to his old self - rambling for 86 yards on 18 carries.

“His knee was bothering him a little bit so we just didn't want to take any chances,” said Wilson, who was unsure of the severity of Stephens' injury.

The Greyhounds (1-1, 5-2) posted two touchdowns in each of the final three quarters - led by bruising fullback Josh Vanalfen, who finished with 123 yards on 19 carries and two scores.

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“He's a stallion,” said Atascadero coach Vic Cooper of his senior back. “He's one of our guys. Week in and week out, he's kind of overshadowed sometimes by the tailback and really I don't think you see as much as he does.”

Vanalfen's 32-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter reclaimed the lead for the Greyhounds at 35-28 after Righetti tied the game up on senior tailback Cody Denham's third touchdown on the night.

“He runs hard at the fullback spot and he blocks his (tail) off and he's also our long snapper and he's a defensive specialist,” added Cooper of Vanalfen. “He had a great game.”

Denham highlighted the Righetti offense, finding the end zone on a five-yard run to open the scoring and then returning a kick-off 99 yards in the second half to put the Warriors ahead 21-7.

Before the half, however, the Greyhounds mounted a six-play, 55-yard scoring drive to come within a touchdown.

Righetti came out firing to start the second half with quarterback Trevor Elswick - who ran in a first-quarter touchdown - hitting receiver Adam Wilson on a 39-yard bomb. But after having a first-and-goal from the Atascadero 1, the Warriors came away with no points. Stephens was stuffed on two runs, Elswick threw an incompletion, and then Martin Luque missed a field goal attempt.

“We marched down. If we punch it in, we're good,” said Wilson of the opening drive of the third quarter. “We've got to capitalize on those things. We can't walk away empty from that and when you do, this is what happens.”

Atascadero took advantage, marching 80 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 21-21 on quarterback Gunnar Jespersen's 18-yard scamper into the end zone.

Three plays later, the Greyhounds had the ball back following an Elswick interception on a ball that went in and out of Wilson's hands. And it took only three more plays for Atascadero to take its first lead with Jespersen hitting receiver Brandon Roberts for an 11-yard TD connection.

On its ensuing possession, Righetti turned the ball back over again as Able Salazar caught a pass for a first down, but let the ball hit the ground.

“I think our defense really set the tone in that second half and they got a couple of turnovers for us and they kind of wore them down,” said Cooper. “You could see they were kind of fatigued there in the fourth quarter when they had a chance to come back there.”

The Warriors did come back to tie it at 28-28 in the fourth quarter when Denham scored his third touchdown. But Atascadero answered right back with Vanalfen rambling in from 32 yards out.

“We were making mistakes out there, assignment mistakes,” said Wilson. “We had some kids out of position. One of our key guys went down, Ryan Switzer went down, and it kind of hurt us a little bit.”

Righetti went to the air with 8:22 left and could not move the ball - punting it away after a quick three-and-out.

On their next possession, the Greyhounds put the game away with senior tailback Rickey Taylor - who was held to six yards on five carries in the first half - rushed in from 20 yards out. Taylor finished with 64 yards on 12 carries.

Elswick had a solid passing game for Righetti, going 12-of-25 for 121 yards, while Wilson hauled in nine catches for 91 yards. Denham gobbled up 75 yards on the ground for the Warriors - who will host Arroyo Grande next week.

Oct. 22, 2005