Touchdowns few and far between for local teams
Friday was a night of setbacks among local football teams in their league openers.
In addition to Tokay’s drubbing at the hands of Tracy to fall to 0-6, Lodi managed a single touchdown in a 38-6 road loss to Lincoln.
Farther north, Liberty Ranch dropped a 50-22 game against Bradshaw Christian in BC’s first league game in the Sierra Valley Conference, and Galt lost 47-7 on the road at El Dorado.
Lincoln 38, Lodi 6
After Lincoln led 18-0 at halftime, Lodi managed its lone touchdown on a Logan Stout quarterback keeper from 1-yard with 7:11 remaining in the third quarter.
“Honeslty I thought we had a descent game,” said Lodi coach George Duenas.
But Lodi’s hope of making it a close game was short-lived — the Trojans scored a little more than a minute later, and led 31-6 at the end of the third quarter.
“We had a couple of blown coverages that made it worse,” Duenas said.
The Flames, who were plagued with turnovers in last week’s non-league finale at Bear Creek that led to the Bruins posting a 40-35 win, were also worn down by the turnover bug again against the Trojans.
“Turnovers killed us again tonight,” Duenas said. “Anytime we had something going on onffense, we turned it over. We started off the second half well. We’re doing a crazy job of losing that monmentum that we’ve worked so hard to get.”
Lodi fell to 1-5 overall and 0-1 in the Tri-City Athletic League.
Bradshaw Christian 50, Liberty Ranch 22
The Hawks’ Sierra Valley Conference loss was a tale of two halves. Liberty Ranch led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter courtesy of a 62-yard Gabe Nino punt return for a score.
The teams went back and forth in the second quarter, with two touchdowns from Bradshaw Christian’s Jeremiah Bonner-Hayes and another from BC’s Evan Zeppieri, counted by a 3-yard touchdown run from Liberty Ranch’s Jonathan Thomas.
But as the teams entered the third quarter with Bradshaw Christian up 22-15, the Hawks’ defense fell apart.
“We had the opening kickoff to start the second half,” Liberty Ranch coach Anthony Linebaugh said. “We stalled, then we had some defensive breakdowns and couldn’t make any stops in the second half. I’ve got to look at the tape to see what went wrong.”
Nate Grant scored for BC to give the Pride a 29-15 lead after three quarters, but then Bonner-Hayes went off for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks’ lone score in the second half was another Nino score, this time on a 99-yard kickoff return.
“Special teams were a bright spot and we’ve struggled with special teams at times,” Linebaugh said. “The punt return, we blocked it up. And we had a long kickoff return to their 40. Then the other score was a great individual effort on his part. We thought he was down, and he made it through.”
The Hawks fell to 2-4 overall, and 0-1 in the SVC.
El Dorado 47, Galt 7
The Warriors managed a single touchdown in Friday’s loss, after which they are 4-2 overall and 0-1 in the SVC.