IN SPORTS: LODI WINS, TOKAY FALLS IN FOOTBALL
Tokay High’s football team completed its run through the tough half of the league with Friday’s 55-10 loss to Lincoln at the Grape Bowl.
The schedule gets easier for the second half of TriCity Athletic League play, and the Tigers did see a few positives from their latest loss.
“We popped a couple of big plays,” Tokay coach Michael Holst said about a secondquarter drive that resulted in Tokay’s first touchdown in more than a month, a 13-yard Daniel Garlick run. “We had a tipped pass that bounced into another guy’s hands, and he stuck with it. They had a couple of penalties that extended that drive, too. We did a little better up front climbing up to the second level to the linebackers.”
But by the time Garlick reached the end zone, Lincoln already had 28 points on the board, thanks to a 22-yard Quinton Gaines pass to Johnell Carter, a 24-yard William Jones run, a Gaines touchdown run on a 4th-and6 play and a 6-yard Gaines pass to Carter.
“I mean, they’re good at football. That’s evident. They do a lot of things well,” Holst said. “I thought today, at least, attitude-wise, the competitiveness from us was the best we’ve done with it since the Chavez game.”
Holst said it can be tough to gauge exactly where a team is when it gets down early to the likes of Tracy and St. Mary’s, and pointed to the play of lineman Zach Fleming putting pressure on Lincoln’s quarterback, and Josh Kirchner playing in all phases of the game and acting as a second coach on the field.
“We did our stuff pretty
well. We stalled on a drive after an onside kick late in the first half, where if we get that, we’re down 28-14. That’s a little bit better than 28-7,” Holst said. “We came out in the second half and went three-and-out, then they came back and scored right away. Kind of halted some of our momentum there. That’s what good teams do.”
Tokay fumbled on Lincoln’s 13-yard line on that drive late in the second quarter, and a 25-yard Merle Bass touchdown run early in the third gave Lincoln a 35-7 lead.
A Corey Glasgow kickoff return to the Lincoln 25 set up a 35-yard Diego Ramirez field goal later in the quarter, but the Trojan onslaught continued with a 13-yard Gaines pass to Joshua Black and a 50-yard Gaines pass to Darian Pollard.
Pollard caught another touchdown, a 13-yarder, in the fourth quarter for the final score.
Tokay (2-6, 0-3 TCAL) travels next week to Tracy to take on West, a 26-14 loser to Lodi on Friday. Lincoln (5-3, 3-0) will host Tracy (5-3, 2-1), which fell 42-14 to St. Mary’s on Friday.