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Tigers' defense holds Sanger without a touchdown as Lemoore to play for title
On a chilly Friday night in Tiger Stadium, it was the defense that provided the heroics as Lemoore earned a spot in the Central Section Division II finals against No. 1 ranked Ridgeview by beating a 10-1 Sanger team 13-5.
It was the second win over Sanger this year. The Tigers edged the Apaches in September 21-19. In fact, Sanger’s only two losses in a 10-2 season were to Lemoore.
How to get to Ridgeview High School
“We knew it was going to be a battle like this,” said Tiger Coach Shannon Pulliam “Of course they’re a tough team, and it was like that the first time around. I can’t say enough about our whole team and the defense. They really stepped up; they didn’t break and they gave up just 3 points the whole game, and to a team that is a grind-it-out physical team. They did a fantastic job and I’m so proud of them.”
The Tigers next challenge will of course be to beat a 12-0 Ridgeview team that won its semi-final Friday night 56-16 over Sunnyside High. The game will be played at Ridgeview on Friday, Dec. 4. Ridgeview is a member of the South Yosemite League. The two teams have not played any common opponents.
“We know they’re a lot similar to us and they run offense like us, a spread offense. It’s almost a mirror image (of us),” said Pulliam. “They have athletes, they’re physical and tough. They have a good team; it’s almost like looking in a mirror and practicing against ourselves. We’ll just have to get after it this week in practice.”
The game nearly changed course dramatically on the Tigers’ opening drive. Following the opening kickoff, the Tigers attempted a bit of razzle-dazzle as Roger Wilson took a handoff on a reverse play and lost control of the ball. He alertly picked it up and found an open Logan Wilson, the team’s quarterback, and hit him with a 20-yard strike - and a first down.
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From there the Tigers marched down the field and scored on a 29-yard field goal from Josh Roa for a 3-0 lead.
Sanger then did something most other teams have failed to do. For much of the first half, the Apaches managed to keep the ball away from Lemoore’s potent offense. On Sanger’s first possession, after holding the Tigers to a field goal, Apache quarterback Michael Castillo marched his team down the field, holding on to the ball for nearly 8 minutes but thanks to Lemoore’s stingy defense, ended up coming away with nothing.
Buoyed by the aggressive running of backs Andrew Azua and Isaiah Hilliard, the Apaches marched to the Tiger 21-yard line before Christian Martinez broke up a Castillo pass on fourth down to keep Sanger at bay.
The Apaches had yet another opportunity in the second quarter, when after blocking a Tiger punt they had the ball at the Tiger 5-yard line and were in position to score. A holding call moved the Apaches back to the Tiger 14 before runs by Azua and Hilliard got them down to the 2-yard line where Lemoore’s potent defense got tough and turned the Apaches away, taking over at their own 1-yard line.
Unfortunately, the Apaches scored on a safety when Ahlin failed to get the ball out of the end zone.
With just 1:23 left in the half, Lemoore scored its only touchdown of the game when Allen Perryman took an Ahlin 22-yard pass out of the grasp of a Sanger defender and scored for a 10-2 advantage.
Perryman was relatively quiet on offense, but he and his defensive teammates more than made up for the lack of touchdowns. Perryman goes both ways for Lemoore as a defensive back and wide receiver. “We knew that Sanger runs the ball 90 percent of the time and we practiced all week for that, and we knew it was going to be a tough defensive game for both teams,” said Perryman. “Our offense wasn’t really working that much, but our defense really stepped it up, especially in the second half as we really got to their quarterback on a number of plays.”
What is Perryman and his team going to have to do to defeat Ridgeview? “I don’t really know too much about Ridgeview,” he said. “We’ll just have to come out and play our game. Our defense has to come out and play their game like they did tonight. I’m sure we’ll be victorious.”
Lemoore held tough in the second half, harassing Sanger’s quarterback and managed to record several sacks, including one by Christian Martinez in third quarter that knocked the Apaches back to their own 2-yard line.
Lemoore’s sack leader, Angel Solis, got to Castillo later in the third while Kelechi Ndoh and Solis teamed up for another sack moments later to force a Sanger punt from its own 5-yard line.
Roa booted his second field goal of the night, this time from 40 yards out in the third period for a 13-5 lead.
With Sanger driving in the fourth, Ndoh recorded another sack while Rigoberto sacked Castillo for a 7-yard loss, and with 2:08 left in the game, Noah Wright picked up a quarterback sack to put a damper on a late Sanger drive. Lemoore’s Carrillo ended the Sanger effort when he sacked Castillo in the final minute.
