EAGLES SOAR TO TITLE
BCHS beats Rancho Cotate 42-21 in state championship game
For nearly the entire first half, it didn’t seem like anything was going to go right for the Bakersfield Christian offense in the CIF Division 3-A State Championship game against Rancho Cotate Saturday.
By the end of the third quarter, as tight end Ben Yurosek hauled in his third touchdown pass from 61 yards out on a deflected ball, things had flipped a full 180 degrees, as the Eagles, once seemingly left for dead early, proceeded to cruise to their first state title.
Bakersfield Christian scored 35 unanswered points after falling in a 14-0 hole early, as a potent passing attack led the Eagles to a 42-21 win on the road Saturday night.
The Eagle offense had just two first downs late in the second quarter, when a 1-yard touchdown run by Cougar quarterback Jared Stocker put his team ahead 14-0.
Facing a third down on its next drive, BCHS turned things around thanks to a great adjustment by Chris Gutierrez, who came back to an underthrown pass for a 36-yard gain.
Yurosek then got open and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dominic Gamboni to cut the deficit to 14-7 just before halftime.
“It was huge,” Gutierrez said of his catch before halftime. “We needed a big play to get us going. We had to get the team into it, get us going. And when I caught it, that was the spark honestly.”
That spark quickly turned into an inferno.
Gutierrez made another big catch, this one a 42-yarder, on the opening drive of the second half, which set up Yurosek’s second touchdown from 13-yards out on the next play.
After two more defensive stops, Jess Wattenbarger and David Stevenson got a ground game that had been dormant to that point going, scoring on runs of 49 and 12 yards to give BCHS a 28-14 lead.
The 28-point third quarter wrapped on the final play, as the tipped ball landed in the arms of Yurosek, who found the end zone for the third time.
Gamboni finished with 344 yards through the air and added a fourth touchdown pass of 80 yards to Ronnie Simril, who had a game-high 159 yards receiving.
“We made a couple adjustments, and that’s how we scored our first touchdown,” Carr said. “Our sideline was on fire and it was really good to get in there to make our second-half adjustments and come out the way we did.”
After coming up short in two previous state tournament trips, Eagle players hope finishing atop the rankings will become the norm at BCHS from here on out.
“All this work we’ve been putting in for nine, 10 months, this is the gratification through it all,” Yurosek said. “I really just want to leave something there, not just for this team, but for the sophomores, freshmen, juniors. Hopefully we just set a standard this year with this team of what Bakersfield Christian should be.”