West Bakersfield at Tehachapi
October 21, 2022
The Warriors celebrate the traditional dunking of the coach with the water bucket after soundly defeating West High
enroute to a league championship. Tehachapi has a bye this Friday night, finishing the regular season at 9-1; 4-0 in
league play. Tehachapi will find out this Saturday who they play in the valley playoffs beginning Nov. 4.
(Photo by Hayden Michael, The Tehachapi News.)
Posted by The Tehachapi News on October 23, 2022. Mountain Football Clinches League Championship
As it was so eloquently put on the THS Boosters Facebook page this past weekend, if they are going to name a league after you, you might as well win it.
The Warriors did just that this past Friday night, overwhelming West at home in a 43-7 victory and clinching the South Yosemite Mountain League championship.
The achievement marked the first league title for Tehachapi since 2017, first outright title since 2011 and 31st overall league championship since 1930 according to thswarriors.com.
AJ Anderson provided the spark on offense for Tehachapi (9-1; 4-0 SYML) with 160 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns, followed by Karson Tiewater with 86 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown and 123 all-purpose yards.
Mike Jones and Jacob Root also had touchdown runs for the Warriors, with Root adding a passing touchdown to Christian Morse in the second half.
On defense, Wyatt Richie, Martin Rodriguez and Jones all had 15 tackles apiece, with Richie and Rodriguez also recording two sacks each. Richie also had four hurries. Other defensive standouts included Tanner Gary (10 tackles, four hurries), Andrew Aguirre (nine tackles), Raul Navarro (eight tackles), Nick Smith (seven tackles, seven hurries, sack), Christian Morse (seven tackles), Tiewater (six tackles, interception), Adrian Pina (six tackles, interception), Jacob Betancourt (four tackles) and Kaleb Songer (three tackles, interception).
On special teams, Rodriguez had two kickoffs that went for touchbacks, Aguirre had a punt that went 53 yards and two-point run after a touchdown and Ryan Walker had a 31-yard kickoff return.
The Warriors will close out the regular season this week with a bye before the CIF Central Section post season starts on Friday, Nov. 4. The playoff brackets will be posted on cifcs.org Saturday, Oct. 29.
Junior Varsity
The Braves closed out a perfect season this past week with a 49-0 shutout victory over West, closing the year undefeated SYML champions.
Tehachapi (9-0; 4-0 SYML) churned out an impressive 208 yards on the ground and had rushing scores from Leo Gonzalez, Mason Rothermel, Noah Welton and Wade Brooks. Cyler Hoofard and Rothermel each had a touchdown receiving from quarterback Anthony Cerbantez, who finished with 71 yards passing and a quarterback rating of 156.3.
On defense, Liddon Scott finished with nine tackles, followed by Gonzalez (eight tackles, interception), Michael Short (seven tackles), Julian Bracken (six tackles), Rothermel (six tackles), Alex Leon (five tackles, sack), Aiden Nicholson (four tackles), Carson Rowlow (four tackles, sack), Vincent Villanueva (sack), Ruben Sedano (interception), Brooks (interception). Gonzalez’ interception was returned 48-yards for a touchdown.
On special teams, Ethan Cardenas was a perfect 7-7 on PATs.
Due to the Freshmen Warriors having a game cancellation with Wasco last Wednesday, a handful of players were promoted to the JV ranks this week. Those players were Conner Rothermel, Julian Bracken, Jr Alaniz, Tylere Lombardi, Dylan Collins, Jacob Meza, Derek Olmscheid and Anthony Reilley.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final West High 0 7 0 7 07 Tehachapi 7 14 15 7 43
West High vs Tehachapi Statistics
WHS THS First Downs 15 Rushes-Yards 21-55 40-316 Passing Yards 48 38 Comp-Att-Int 4-13-3 3-8-1 Total Yards 103 354 Punts 5-33.6 2-37.0 Penalties 1-12 7-75
Individual Statistics:
RUSHING — West High: Parks 17-40, Leon 1-8, Perez 1-1, McKnight 1-4 Laulusa 1-2.
Tehachapi: Anderson 11-160, Tiewater 10-86, Jones 7-19, Root 2-3, Aguirre 3-31, Hart 4-17, Morse 1-2, Walker 1-1.
PASSING — West High: Bennett 4-13-3-48. Tehachapi: Root 3-8-1-38.
RECEIVING — West High: Leon 3-33, Salazar 1-15.
Tehachapi: Tiewater 1-6, Morse 1-16, Jones 1-16
