Righetti's offensive unit didn't panic when Lompoc's Lucas Carpio caught a go-ahead 66-yard touchdown pass with 3:13 to play Friday night.

The Warriors' reward was a 13-12 victory in both teams' PAC-7 League opener at Righetti's Warrior Stadium.

On fourth down-and-goal from inches away, Righetti center Michael Reed had a good surge off the snap as he drove forward to block. Quarterback Adam Wilson burrowed behind him into the end zone with 33 seconds left to tie the game. Martin Luque drilled the point-after kick for winning score.

“We got here as a team,” Reed said after Righetti improved to 4-2-0 overall. Lompoc is 2-3-0.

Wilson's second 1-yard run for a score finished a 62-yard scoring drive. Moments before, Carpio had gotten free over the middle, taken Tim Ochoa's heave and outraced Righetti defensive back Tyler Boyd to the end zone.

Boyd, however, went home happy after he and Wilson broke up Ochoa's pass for Daniel Carpio at the Righetti 12 on the last play of the game.

“We knew (Ochoa) was going to go deep,” Wilson said.

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“I just figured I'd better bat it down instead of going for the interception. If I intercept it, I might fumble when I'm running with it, so it's best if I just bat it down. Safest thing to do.”

Their open field tackling helped bail the Warriors out. Timmy Dwyer caught two long passes from Wilson worth a total of 68 yards. His biggest play, however, came when he tripped up Bobby Collins on the Righetti 47 as Collins was streaking down the Lompoc sideline with the opening kickoff.

Minus Dwyer's tackle, Collins probably scores. The Warrior tacklers nailed their men in every other open field situation as well.

Wilson didn't sound particularly impressed.

“We shouldn't be in that situation where we have to make those tackles,” he said with a rueful smile. “We should be down there gang tackling.”

Kyle Leon (135 yards on 26 carries on offense) made the Warriors' situation easier when he pressured Ochoa as the Braves went for two after Ochoa's touchdown pass.

With Leon bearing down on him, the 6-1 quarterback couldn't get enough on his throw, and it hit the ground well short of his intended receiver.

Collins began the scoring when he scampered into the end zone from 12 yards out 4:36 into the game. The point-after kick, however, was far wide to the right.

“We didn't get it done in the kicking game,” Lompoc coach Robin Luken said afterward. “We had two chances.”

The Warriors didn't get it done in any of their three first half drives inside Lompoc's 15-yard-line, and it nearly cost them the game.

Leon fumbled the ball away on 1st-and-goal from the 4 on the first drive. On the second, Todd Noel dropped a pass in the end zone, and then the field goal try was botched. On the third, the Braves sacked Wilson twice in a row and then Wilson threw an incomplete pass on fourth down.

In the second half, Righetti's offense struck gold twice. “The ‘O' line really stepped it up,” after halftime, Wilson said.

Wilson's quarterback keeper for a score finished a 64-yard drive with 7:49 left in the third quarter. Zach Wales blocked the point-after kick, and the score remained tied.

“After all those times we screwed up in the red zone in the first half, the kids kept their poise,” said Righetti coach Gary Wilson, Adam's father.

However, “We keep making little mistakes, and we can't keep doing that. This is a tough league. (Lompoc's) a good team. They're going to beat some people.”

Lompoc blew a good scoring chance itself in the third quarter.

A snap over punter Leon's head set up the Braves' first score, as they were perched on the Righetti 12 afterward. Collins scored two plays later.

Lompoc seemed all set to score again after a bad long snap on punt formation victimized the Warriors once more. Leon chased the ball down at his 5 and got a pass off to Boyd, but Boyd was stopped at the Righetti 15.

On fourth down, Ochoa connected with Daniel Carpio for six yards and a first down at the 2. But the Braves were hit with a five-yard illegal procedure penalty.

Ochoa fumbled the next snap, and Righetti's Jesse Aragon recovered at Righetti's 10.

Wilson, Leon, Reed, Aragon and linebacker K.C. Sarellano led a Warriors defensive charge that throttled the Braves offense. Lompoc had all of nine first downs.

“Both defenses played really well,” said Gary Wilson. “Our kids really stepped it up. We're still a little dinged up. We were still without a couple of starters.”

Righetti had only three first downs before halftime. Braves defensive lineman Kevin Dutton spent a lot of his time spoiling the Warriors' plays then. The Warriors had 13 first downs after the break.

“That was the best second half we've played all year,” one of them said to a teammate afterward.

Oct. 7, 2006