Warrior running back Phil Rhodes (with ball) breaks away from a West High defender enroute to a TD for Tehachapi.
West High, Highland High, and the Warriors participated in a three-way varsity scrimmage this past weekend.
The Warriors open up at Exeter this Friday night, September 3, 2010. Photo by Michael Duffy, The Tehachapi News
Posted on August 30, 2010, by Tom Shea, The Tehachapi News Ready To Rumble
Season Opener This Friday
In a three way scrimmage between Tehachapi, West and Highland, the Warriors look poised for a positive start to their upcoming season.
Mountain Football participated in nine series overall against the Vikings and Scots, displaying the team’s diversity in rushing and relentless hard-hitting nature on defense.
"There was a lot of improvement from last week (at the inner-squad scrimmage), the kids were getting after it," said head coach Steven Denman. "They showed a better output in their fundamentals and execution. We were pleased on the level of intensity."
Tehachapi's first team offense took the field in the third series of the night, with Michael Lowder and Phil Rhodes combining for 83 total yards and two scores. Bobby Howell and Levi Garrett also both split time at quarterback, hitting receivers Cory Lange and Jorge Garcia on two completions.
"The first unit did a good job for us, sometimes it can be hard to get going and getting things working correctly," added Denman. "Our guys moved the ball well and did a good job on defense."
Other offense highlights came from Skyler Stephens, who had 43 yards on four carries, Wyatt Vance with 19 yards on three caries, Marcus Curiel with an up-the-gut run for 18 yards, Bobby Cooley with 11 yards on two carries and Brian Castaneda with nine yards on three carries.
Highland and West both came out with a spread offense, testing the Warrior secondary and finding limited opportunities with running draws and passes.
Travis Farewell led the defense with four tackles overall, followed by Colt Murrow and Cameron King with three tackles, David Lara and Adam Bullard with two tackles and Marcus Curiel with a sack.
Kash Knudson also had three pass break-ups, Chris Coontz had an interception and Chris Counihan had a fumble recovery to highlight the three defensive series for Tehachapi.
"We have a tough first game test (against Exeter) and we'll need to be ready," Denman said. "We want to carry the momentum from the scrimmage into our season and continue to get better."
Tehachapi's first game this Friday night at Exeter will start at 7:30 p.m.
Junior Varsity
Led by a pair of scores by Dylan Teeter, the Braves got their season off on the right foot in scrimmage action last Friday afternoon.
Blake Waters had a pair of 40-yard punts prior to the offense and defense taking the field, and Christian Terle had 48 yards on five carries to lead the ground attack.
On defense, linebacker Ian Neufeld led the squad with four tackles and a fumble recovery, while other ball carriers churning yards on the ground included Barry Jones, Sklyar Valencia, Ryle Snowder and Ben Johnson, who collectively had 69 rushing yards. Klayton Duxbury also had a 31-yard pass completion to Dakota Medovitch.
The jayvees will play their first game this Friday afternoon at Exeter, with a kickoff set for 5:30 p.m.
Freshmen
The Indians got their first taste of Mountain Football last Friday, registering 141 yards of offense overall in a three-way scrimmage with Bakersfield competition.
Gathering rushing yardage for Tehachapi were Nathan Evans, Micah Fjeld, Isaiah Hutto and Angel Romo, who all combined for 65 rushing yards.
Jacob Angevine and Andrew Borst were also standouts on defense with multiple tackles on the afternoon, while Joshua Ochoa and Adam Conifer both had 30-yard completions from quarterback Evan Hackney.
Exeter does not have a freshmen program, so the Indians will play Madera-South this week in their season opener. The game will start at 5 p.m. in Madera.
