Joe Debeley Stadium was the host site Friday night for the highly anticipated battle between regional powerhouses Turlock High and Sonora High, a meeting of the 11th and 10th ranked teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section, per MaxPreps.
The two programs, who haven’t faced off since 2013, each entered the non-conference clash riddled with injuries. But it was the Wildcats — the defending Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI and CIF State Division 4-A champions — that were able to persevere and pull out a 35-24 victory, as the ailments for the Bulldogs continued to pile up.
Turlock was already without starting running back Alex Ventura, who exited last week’s loss to Central with an injury to his midsection, and was also missing wideout and safety Jeremy Garcia and Noel Garcia with bothersome legs, as well as defensive back Noah Tovar. In the losing effort, key players Landyn Fitzgerald, Donovan Muirbrook, Logan Homen, DJ Robertson, Donnell Harmon III and Keanyn Boyd all went down to further deplete the depth charts.
“We'll just take it one day at a time and see what's going on with each of these guys,” said Turlock head coach James Peterson. “We have an athletic trainer (Tianna Barron) for a reason, and she's doing her job, man. She definitely worked hard tonight, and I'm glad that we have her. Man, we are lucky to have that support on our staff right now. So I’m just thinking about the guys who got injured and pray that they can get back. My heart goes out to them. They fought hard, played hard, and it tipped their way tonight. Sonora is a tough program, and they’re a state champion for a reason.”
Sonora was without star rusher Tommy Sutton, who broke his arm last week and will be missing significant time. But it didn’t stop the Wildcats from running for 376 yards and five touchdowns against the thin Bulldog defense. They only completed one pass the entire night for three yards.
The Wildcats received the opening kickoff and milked nearly six minutes on 10 rushing plays, the final being a 4-yard dive from Cash Byington. The Bulldogs, debuting their Nike Gold Rush uniforms, responded with a seven minute, 17-play drive that was capped off with a 1-yard sneak up the middle from quarterback Scout Silva in the early stages of the second quarter. The extra point was missed. It then took just four plays from scrimmage for Steven Ollet Jr. to break out a 60-yard touchdown run to extend Sonora’s lead to 14-6.
The tide quickly turned in favor of Turlock, as they answered with a nine-play drive ending in another Silva sneak. The failed 2-point conversion kept the Bulldogs trailing 14-12. Seconds later, on Sonora’s first play on the ensuing drive, Muirbrook recovered a Brody Speer fumble at the 25-yard line. Three plays was all it took for Silva to scamper into the end zone again from two yards out to give the Bulldogs an 18-14 advantage before the conversion attempt failed once more.
Turlock’s first lead didn’t last long as Byington evaded tacklers for a 58-yard touchdown score to make it 21-18 Wildcats heading into the half. The Bulldogs reclaimed the lead on the opening drive with Silva diving up the middle for yet another score from a yard out, and the score remained 24-21 after the point-after kick was blocked. It would be all the momentum the ‘Cats needed, as they rushed 12 times on the next drive to retake the lead on a 2-yard rush from Speer. They forced Turlock to punt on the next drive, and quarterback Eli Ingalls put a cherry on top the night’s scoring with a 10-yard rushing score midway through the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs possessed the ball two more times for the remainder of the game, but turned the ball over on downs each time.
“I thought that the ‘Tracy Luck’ was going to come our way, you know, with it being Gold Rush night, we're going to have a little luck on our side. But It just didn't fall that way,” Peterson said, referencing the team’s thunderous comeback two weeks ago.
Olley II led the Wildcats with 129 rushing yards. Byington followed with 123. Speer and Ingalls pitched in 66 and 58, respectively.
“I was worried about it,” Peterson said of Sonora’s infamous rushing attack. “I mean, don't get me wrong, I've respected their program for a long time. I've been worried about it all week… They were just better at times.”
Silva rushed for 44 yards on the night, with another 213 through the air on 18 completions out of 26 attempts. His top targets were Fitzgerald and Muirbrook. Fitzgerald caught four passes for 43 yards while Muirbrook had 82 yards on six receptions. Running back Braiden Fuentes added 48 ground yards.
Peterson acknowledged that Silva is still working through an elbow injury suffered in their opening week loss to Rocklin, but does not feel the play-calling has been impacted.
“I think at times we do consider it, but we're not totally handicapped going to him” Peterson said. “I think we’re still following the same playbook.”
Defensively, Levi Cook was kept busy with the constant rushing, and was in on eight tackles. He also recorded a sack.
Turlock dropped to 1-3 on the season, while Sonora improved to 4-0 heading into the first week of the small-school gauntlet that is the Trans-Valley League.
“It was a hard game,” Peterson said. “Our kids are very tough. They're gonna get past this. They're gonna learn from it. We're gonna be better because of it. I mean, that's why we play a tough preseason schedule.”
The Bulldogs will be back at home next week, welcoming Clovis West to town. The Golden Eagles are the fifth-ranked team in the Central Section, and improved to 3-1 on Friday with a 31-12 win over Edison.
