Tehachapi at Central Valley Christian (Visalia)
Friday, November 10, 2023
A. J. Anderson #4 eludes a host of CVC defenders Friday night in Visalia. Before a near capacity crowd on both sides of the field,
the host Cavaliers defeated Tehachapi, 48-27, in a Division II playoff game. The Warriors had a tremendous season, finishing 11-1.
(Photo by The Tehachapi News.
Posted by The Tehachapi News on November 11, 2023. Warriors End Season In Playoff Quarters to CVC
The standout season for Mountain Football came to a close in Visalia, falling to No. 1 Central Valley Christian in the CIF
Central Section Division II quarterfinals, 48-27.The Warriors faced off against one of the premier teams in the Central Section, which featured running back and Fresno State commit
Bryson Donelson and a talented offensive line that paved the way.By game’s end, Donelson had 432 all-purpose yards (391 rushing, 41 kickoff returns) and six touchdowns, with the Cavalier (11-1) offense
recording 543 yards overall in the victory.
Despite the defeat, Tehachapi (11-1) played with heart from start to finish, finding success of their own on offense.
Leading the way was standout running back AJ Anderson, who had a season-high 242 yards on 28 carries. Mike Jones also had 53 yards
rushing, 35 yards receiving and two rushing scores while Andrew Aguirre had three receptions for 65 yards and two touchdowns.
Quarterback Jacob Root finished the game against CVC with 100 yards passing and two touchdowns.
Defensively, the Warriors had a handful of standout performers, led by Aguirre and Tylere Lombardi with eight tackles each.
Other standouts included Carter Kolesar (seven tackles), Anderson (six tackles), Levi Hart (six tackles) and
Jacob Betancourt (four tackles, pass defensed).On special teams, Wade Brooks recorded a fumble recovery on a kickoff return, Anderson had a punt block that was recovered by
Tanner Gary and Betancourt had a 101 total yards on kickoff returns.With the season concluded, Root achieved two significant milestones in THS history, tying the single-season record in touchdown completions
with 23 (Carroll Killingsworth also had 23 touchdown passes in 1951) and setting a new single-season record in passing yards
1,434 (Erik Oberg had the previous record of 1,402 yards in 1981).Also in the record books, 2023 Mountain Football has the most points scored in a single-season with 487, overtaking
the 2010 team (462 points in 14 games).The back-to-back SYML champion Warriors had the support of the entire town of Tehachapi, right until the very end.
It will be a season to remember.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Tehachapi 7 7 13 0 27 CVC Cavaliers 20 6 8 14 48
Tehachapi vs CVC Statistics
THS CVS First Downs 20 Rushes-Yards 44-285 40-474 Passing Yards 100 69 Comp-Att-Int 4-16-2 4-8-0 Total Yards 385 543 Punts 1-36.0 1-40.0 Penalties 8-78
Individual Statistics:
RUSHING — Tehachapi: AJ Anderson 28-242, Jones 11-53, Jones 9-73, Root 5-(-10).
CVC: Donaldson 33-391, Lewis 1-5, Ritchie 1-33, Kroeze 2-27, Padon 1-0, DeGroff 2-18.
PASSING — Tehachapi: Root 4-16-2-100. CVC: Kroeze 4-8-0-69.
RECEIVING — Tehachapi: Aguirre 3-65, Jones 1-35.
CVC: Cooke 2-31.
Varsity Records: Tehachapi 11-1 CVC Cavaliers 11-1.
