The latest battle between Bulldogs ended with ‘The Bone’ staying in Stanislaus County for another year, as the Turlock varsity football team took down Tracy, 26-23, Friday night at Joe Debely Stadium.

The win was the second in as many years against the Tracy team after the programs — both with Bulldog nicknames—  revived their non-conference rivalry dubbed “Battle of the Bone” last year for the first time since 2019.

Turlock, wearing yellow helmets for the first time this season since the late 1980s, according to some coaches, now lead the all-time series 6-4. The victory also marked the first of the season for Turlock, who dropped last week’s road contest to CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II runner-up Rocklin by a 35-7 score.

“We're proud of that ugly thing, that ugly little bone,” said head coach James Peterson with a laugh as players posed with the (poorly) painted blue and green bone that is awarded to the game’s winner. “After a long time not playing him, we went to playoffs a few times and ended up matching up with those guys, and we had similar scores just like tonight, and it’s just a fun little rivalry we got going on. They are a good, winning program that makes it hard on us, and we’re happy to compete against them.”

It was a tale of two halves with Tracy controlling the time of possession in the opening frames, taking a 17-6 lead into halftime after running 31 plays and milking almost 15 minutes of clock on offense and forcing a fumble and a turnover on downs. But it was a third quarter to forget for the visitors.

Tracy seemed poised to add on out of halftime, receiving the kickoff and running another 13 plays over eight minutes and setting themselves up at the Turlock 29-yard line. Then, Jeremy Garcia took over.

Garcia, a senior safety, was noticeably frustrated with the six penalties and four unsportsmanlike conduct infractions Turlock was called for, urging his teammates to “lock in,” a seemingly desperate plea as he knew that the game was hanging in the balance as another Tracy score would have made it a three-possession game. Roughly five seconds later, Garcia cut off a slant route, picking off Tracy’s Brady Brown and returning it 71 yards to the house to cut the lead to 17-12. A 2-point conversion attempt failed moments later.

Tracy was pinned inside their own 10-yard line on the ensuing kickoff, and two plays later, it was Garcia again who had Turlock back in business with a fumble recovery, leading to a 19-yard rushing score from junior Alex Ventura. Quarterback Scout Silva then rushed in the 2-point conversion to give Turlock a 20-17 lead.

“Realistically, we were beating ourselves up with the penalties,” Garcia said. “This team is very emotional, so that was what went into all that yelling, trying to get us back on track… Me yelling at them to keep their cool, it definitely helped them. We were able to calm down, and that (slowed down) the penalties.

“With that play,  the quarterback was just looking my way. We called our coverages going into the flat, and I'm in the flat. I saw the slot receiver go out, long arm, and I was right there the whole time.”

“We showed blitz, and he just read the ball perfectly,” Peterson added. “Jeremy is just an outstanding kid.. I saw him just light up and go catch that thing and take it all away, man. It's an amazing, great feeling. I’m so happy for him.”

Turlock forced a punt right before the fourth quarter, driving 73 yards for another Ventura score, this time from three yards out, making it a 26-17 game following a blocked point-after attempt.

Tracy’s last score came with just over two minutes left in the game when Brown connected with David Goularte for a 39-yard touchdown, with their point-after attempt also blocked. By then, just one first down was all Turlock needed to end the game on a pair of kneel downs by Silva.

Silva’s availability wasn’t a sure thing until Wednesday, said Peterson, after the sophomore received a heavy hit to his throwing arm late in last Friday’s loss. The dual-threat gunslinger didn’t do much throwing for his standards, attempting only 12 passes for 78 yards and a touchdown, which was a 9-yard dart to Braiden Fuentes in the first quarter that marked the team’s only first half score. Silva made an impact with his legs, though scrambling for 96 yards.

As for Ventura,  he rushed for 98 yards and his two touchdowns on 16 carries.

“We've been wanting to establish the run with this young team, and that's been our goal this year, to not put so much on Scout,” Peterson said. “But you see what kind of player (Silva) is. He's got options in this offense to pull the ball. He'll unload, he'll yank the ball and you see what he does with his feet. It's amazing to see him play well, especially after the scare we had last week at Rocklin with the injury. For him to rehab all week, like relentlessly rehabbing him, he performed well, so I’m just super happy.”

Turlock will hit the road next week to take on familiar non-conference foe, Central East of Fresno, who sport a different look and name after rebranding over the summer from the Grizzlies to the Bengals. Central is 1-1 this year and are coming off a 42-26 loss on Friday to defending Division II champion Grant.