Garces Rams at Tehachapi
November 16, 2001
Warrior Derek Easttom #21 dives for yardage against the Rams.
By KEVIN EUBANKS, Californian Staff Writer, Posted Saturday November 17, 2001, 01:00:13 AM Garces Thwarts Tehachapi Bid For Unbeaten SSL Season
With 19-18 Overtime WinTEHACHAPI -- It was exactly how a league championship should be decided.
A frigid night on the mountain. The near-panting breath from exhausted players easily seen in a cloud in front of muddy face masks. Four plays from the 10-yard line to score. The team that does it better wins.
That team was Garces.
Steven Mahlmann scooped up a low pass from Matt Oliver on a third-and-goal from the 4-yard line in overtime for a touchdown, then followed with the PAT for a 19-18 win over Tehachapi in overtime.
But it wasn’t the overtime that was the story. It was the Rams’ defense.
That defense, which is best known as one that is easily scored upon, was more of a solid, impenetrable wall against the Warriors’ wing-T attack Friday night in an improbable display of complete domination of the line of scrimmage.
“I’ve been telling the kids all along, offense wins games, defense wins championships,” Garces coach John Fanucchi said, looking like he was near tears.
“I told the players if we were going to win the South Sequoia League, or a share of the title, we were going to have to play better defense. And I can’t say enough about how they played.”
The Garces win left a three-way tie for the league title in the SSL for the second season in a row. The Rams, Warriors and Tehachapi all have one league loss, and all tie for the SSL championship.
The game didn’t look like it would be close at all after the first two minutes.
Tehachapi’s Gary Evans ran 81 yards for a touchdown untouched on the first play of the game, and after Garces went three-and-out, Evans took the ball 50 yards for another touchdown on the very next play from scrimmage.
And that was it for the Tehachapi offense.
Those two plays were for a total of 133 yards, and it took Tehachapi until the fourth quarter to match that number again, and only picked up 189 more yards the entire game — and no more points until the overtime.
“We worked our butts off for the past two weeks and we knew we would give them a good game,” Garces defensive lineman Chris White said. “After the two touchdowns, we just kept thinking that’s all we’re going to give him, we’ve got to hit him right back.”
Evans was a non-factor after the second touchdown, picking up just 15 more yards on his final 11 carries. Tehachapi coach Steve Denman said that Evans was dizzy after the second scoring run, which took him out of the offense for most of the first half.
“Gary got dizzy and he couldn’t come back into the game for a while, and that really threw us out of rhythm,” Denman said. “They kept nine in the box and did a great job. We didn’t block well, but the key is that Garces was very physical.”
The Rams started to break down the Tehachapi defense in the second quarter, using touch running from D.T. Hronis up the middle and the speedy Adam Cook around the outside to pick up yardage. With eight minutes left in the first half, Mahlmann kicked a 23-yard field goal, and he narrow the score to a touchdown with a 25-yard field goal as time ran out in the half.
The second half was a purely defensive struggle, except for one play. With a little more than four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Cook took a handoff left and appeared to be stopped, but then broke several tackles, came back to the right and sprinted 81 yards into the end zone to tie the score. The PAT was blocked.
Neither team came close to scoring for most of the remainder of the game, with both teams exchanging punts. In all, there were 14 punts in the game with Garces kicking the ball away eight times.
But with a little more than one minute left in the game, it appeared that Evans would have the final say in the game, running around the right side and going untouched into the end zone on the same play that allowed him to score twice in the first half. But a clipping penalty called the play back. It was just one of many penalties called against Tehachapi that killed potentially big plays.
“We had way too many penalties, and then there was the clip and I didn’t think there was one,” Denman said. “That took us out of field goal range. I guess that Garces just executed better at key times tonight.”
After Derik Easttom ran for a touchdown on the opening possession in overtime, Garces was called for offsides on the PAT, moving the ball up to the one-and-a-half yard line. Denman’s decision was to go for two.
Easttom kept the ball on a quarterback sneak, and after a big pile-up at the line of scrimmage, the ball did appear to cross the goal line with one official even indicating so. But the call was overruled, saying his knee was down before the ball crossed.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT Final Tehachapi 12 0 0 0 6 18 Garces 0 6 6 0 7 19
Scoring summary:
T—Evans 88 run (kick failed)
T—Evans 50 run (run failed)
G—FG Mahlmann 23
G—FG Mahlmann 25
G—Cook 81 run (kick failed)
T—Easttom 5 run (run failed)
G—Mahlmann 4 pass from Oliver (Mahlmann kick)
THS vs GARCES GAME STATS
THS GHS First Downs 8 10 Rushes-Yards 39-252 39-193 Passing Yards 70 64 Comp-Att-Int 3-11-0 6-14-0 Total Yards 322 257 Punts-Avg. 4-35.0 6-33.7 Fumbles-Lost 2-1 0-0 Penalties 8-70 3-26
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:
Rushing—Garces, Cook 12-108, Hronis 16-87, Rossi 3-9, Oliver 7-(-2), Bailey 1-(-5).
Tehachapi, Evans 13-148, Bennett 8-41, Easttom 9-33, Troffer 5-25, Vandeventer 3-8, Warner 1-(-3).
Passing—Garces, Oliver 6-13-0 64 yards, Cook 0-1-0 0 yards. Tehachapi, Warner 2-7-0 21 yards, Easttom 1-4-0 49 yards.
Receiving—Garces, Mahlmann 2-23, Formella 1-23, Frazier 1-17, Bailey 1-7, Cook 1-(-6). Tehachapi, Denman 2-53, Easttom 1-17.
Junior Varsity: Tehachapi 35, Garces 0. Frosh/Soph: Tehachapi 36, Garces 14.
