No miracle in sight for Wildcats
| Saturday, Dec 12 2009 12:17 AM
Last Updated Saturday, Dec 12 2009 01:05 PM
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Casey Christie / The Californian Taft's Brice Royal zigs and zags, Friday against Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft's Chad Tannehill, center, and Brice Royal take down Kingburg's Michael Torres, Friday, in Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft quarterback Hunter Liljeroos gets away from a couple of Kingsburg players, Friday night.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft Wildcat cheerleaders catch some raindrops Friday night while cheering on the Taft football team while playing against Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian Several Taft High Wildcats take down a Kingsburg player, Friday in Kingsburg during game action.
Casey Christie / The Californian Kingsburg quarterback Tyler Bray dives over Taft's Jordan Vermillion, left, and Tyler Pitts, for a touchdown with a quarteback keeper, Friday night in Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft's Tyler Pitts tries to stop Kingsburg quarterback, Tyler Bray, with a quarterback keeper in the endzone, Friday night in Kingsburg. Bray scored a touchdown here in the third quarter.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft's Chad Tannehill, center, and Brice Royal take down Kingburg's Michael Torres, Friday, in Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft's Cody Shirreffs gains some good yardage, Friday against the Kingsburg Vikings.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft quarterback Hunter Liljeroos gets away from a couple of Kingsburg players, Friday night.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft's Brice Royal zigs and zags, Friday against Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian Taft Wildcat cheerleaders catch some raindrops Friday night while cheering on the Taft football team while playing against Kingsburg.
Casey Christie / The Californian The Taft Wildcats were ready for action, Friday night against the Kingsburg Vikings.
Casey Christie / The Californian Several Taft High Wildcats take down a Kingsburg player, Friday in Kingsburg during game action.
Casey Christie / The Californian Kingsburg quarterback, Tyler Bray runs the ball out of bounds as Taft players, Chad Tannehill, and Jordan Vermillion, force him out of bounds.
KINGSBURG Unlike the rain which didn't begin to pour until late in the game, Kingsburg hit Taft with a deluge right from the start of Friday night's Central Section Division IV Championship game.
The top-seeded Vikings, behind a huge performance from star quarterback Tyler Bray, scored touchdowns on its first five possessions and never looked back in beating the Wildcats 47-16 at the Kingsburg High School Bowl.
No. 3 Taft's usually solid defense looked ill-equipped to stop the University of Tennessee bound Bray, who was 19-of-23 for 260 yards with five touchdowns passing.
The 6-foot-6 Bray also rushed seven times for 40 yards and another score in leading Kingsburg (13-0) to a perfect season and its first section championship since 1977.
"They're 13-0 for a reason," Taft coach Steve Sprague said. "They're pretty good. We didn't do anything early to help ourselves...our offense stunk. At times our defense stunk. It just wasn't our turn."
Brice Royal had 130 yards on 13 carries including a 75-yard touchdown and Cody Shirreffs added 107 yards rushing for the Wildcats. But most of their damage was inflicted after Kingsburg had already built an insurmountable lead.
On the first play from scrimmage after Royal busted loose down the left sideline to cut the deficit to 47-10 with 3:19 remaining in the game, Shirreffs wrestled the ball way from Nico Canu after a short completion and went 25-yards for another Taft touchdown.
"Going into that first half we didn't come out and play our A-game but after a talk with coach we came out, played hard, and we tried to make a comeback as best as we could," Royal said.
The Wildcats trailed 41-0 late into the third quarter before going on an 81-yard march that ended with a 22-yard Ada Figueroa field goal.
Taft's offense lacked its usual punch early. The Wildcats had just 59 yards and three first downs before the intermission.
"We knew at halftime there was no miracle adjustment to be made," Sprague said. "It was just go out and battle hard and I thought we did that."
Meanwhile Bray had his way with Taft's defense in the first half.
After two incomplete passes on Kingsburg's first drive of the game, he connected on 15 straight passes as the Vikings went up and down the field seemingly at will.
Both of Kingsburg first quarter drives ended with Bray connecting with Trenton Davis for touchdowns.
In the second quarter he threw three more touchdown passes to three different receivers, the last one a low 8-yard laser that Michael Torres snagged in the front corner of the end zone.
Bray's five touchdown passes tied a career high. The senior quarterback's only major misstep came early in the third quarter when Jordan Vermillion intercepted him.
"Last year we knew we let one get away," Bray said. "We came into this game knowing that we weren't going to let it happen again. We proved it tonight. We made a statement."
