It was a game of stiff defense and the occasional big play, as the Warriors of Righetti vanquished the Warriors of Tehachapi won Friday's football game 15-12.

Size was in good supply for Tehachapi, creating some mismatches in size along the lines for Righetti coach Gary Wilson to deal with.

“We knew they'd be filling the box, so we tried to spread it out a bit,” said the coach.

And so Righetti, which enjoyed over 400 yards of rushing offense in their previous game, began the contest with three straight passing plays. The third pass to Jeremy Conway was good enough to move the sticks, but the drive would stumble following a fumbled hand off and a sack on an attempted quarterback sneak.

“They were just a big, physical line, and they were pushing our guys around out there,” said coach Wilson. “This is just a better team than last week.”

In spite of the three and-a-half-hour bus trip, the Tehachapi team was faster out of the blocks. After trading punts with Righetti, the visiting Warriors started their next possession on their own 9-yard line thanks to a penalty. The field position did not matter however, as Louis James broke through the purple defensive line, and followed the sideline 91 yards for the score for the white and green.

A bad kickoff would grant Righetti, hot off their offensive annihilation of South Bakersfield 62-26 last week, the ball on their own 45-yard line.

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Righetti would answer, with a march downfield from their own 45, ending with a 3-yard run by senior Michael Alexander to score. An extra point fake, turned into a passing play to Kyle Leon for the two point conversion.

Special teams continued to be the difference for the purple Warriors on the ensuing kick off, when a well placed kick, and poor judgment by the otherwise stellar Gabe Bressler of Tehachapi saw the ball go out of bounds on the 2-yard line.

An offside call would back the visiting Warriors to their 1, and a punt soon followed.

Momentum was not to stay with Righetti however. Quarterback Adam Wilson threw on first down, and Garrett Coontz of the opposing team was there with the pick.

Tehachapi could of taken control at that point, quickly setting up first-and-goal situation from the 8-yard line thanks to a slow but steady run attack (287 total rushing yards). The next run up the middle would move the pile of warriors to within inches of the goal line, but a five yard penalty would make it a long five yards to go. Quarterback Ehren Ochsenrider would pick a bad time to fumble on a hand-off. He would recover, but his team failed to score on the ensuing 14 yard pass attempt.

Tehachapi coach Steve Denman would try for the 14 yard field goal, but an offsides call would force his kicker to try from 19 yards out. The kick was wide.

The Warriors in white would suffer a total of eight penalties for an almost 60 yard loss.

“The defense stepped up big this game. I think they saved us this time,” said Michael Alexander of his Righetti teammates. “Offense did it last game, but this was all defense.”

Both defenses kept the second quarter quiet, and the beginning of the third as well.

The scoring dry spell ended suddenly when Stefan Bekker would bust a run along the right sideline from his own 26 to put Tehachapi back in the lead. The 2-point conversion failed.

Righetti wasted no time in answering, as on their next possession Wilson dumped a quick throw to Alexander, on a play designed for 5 to 10 yards. Instead Alexander would burn through the secondary and take it 62 yards for a touchdown.

“Adam got me the ball and I hit the hole, linemen blocked good and I just scored,” he said with a surprised chuckle. “When they scored, we just didn't give up.”

The extra point was good, and gave Righetti their final score of 15-12.

It definitely was the offense last game, and defense this game. Next week we just have to put it together against Santa Barbara,” said coach Wilson. “By league I think we'll do very well.”

Righetti improves to a non-league record of 2-1, and host Santa Barbara next Friday.

Tehachapi falls to 1-2, and hosts Stockdale next week.

Sept. 16, 2006