Stockdale, Bakersfield meet in football semifinal
| Thursday, Nov 26 2009 08:45 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Nov 26 2009 09:10 PM
All games start at 7 p.m.
Central Section
Division I
(6) Bakersfield at (3) Stockdale
(5) Liberty at (4) Fresno-Central
(8) Centennial at (1) Clovis-Buchanan
Division II
(6) Garces at (3) Frontier
Division III
(10) Foothill at (2) Tehachapi
(5) Hanford at (4) Delano
(6) Ridgeview at (3) Porterville
Division IV
(5) Exeter at (4) Wasco
(6) Dos Palos at (3) Taft
Southern Section
Northeast Division
Boron at Palos Verdes Peninsula-Chadwick
Mojave at L.A.-Salesian
Images
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Stockdale High's Malik Henderson breaks for big yards on a fourth-down run during September's game against Bakersfield High.
On a muggy September night, Bakersfield and Stockdale played a high school football game for the ages, a contest full of swings and mistakes and great plays, and in the end, the scoreboard gave the Drillers one more point than the Mustangs.
There has to be a winner and a loser, and that settled that.
Or did it? Stockdale went on to win its next eight games, rolling through the Southwest Yosemite League and laying claim to the Central Section's No. 3 seed in the Division I playoffs.
Bakersfield, for its part, stumbled each of the next two weeks before recovering to go 8-2 and nab the No. 6 seed. Now, the Drillers say it doesn't even feel like they won the first game.
"A lot of people have been saying it's hard for a team to beat another team twice in a year," BHS linebacker Peter Welsh said. "Well, we don't feel like we beat them. Maybe on paper we won, but individually, to ourselves, the things we have to do, we didn't win that battle."
And yet Stockdale doesn't think so, either.
"We gave them a chance, and we didn't finish," Mustangs coach Mike Snow said. "Ever since then, that's been our thing: Gotta finish, gotta finish. So hopefully we can finish (tonight)."
Confused? Maybe it's a good thing the section decided to pit the teams against each other again, in a section quarterfinal at 7 tonight at Stockdale. The winner advances to next Friday's semifinals, either at No. 2 Fresno-Bullard or at home against No. 7 Clovis West.
"A lot of people are questioning: 'Who is the best team in Bakersfield?'" Welsh said. "I feel like this is going to be a huge aspect in deciding that. It'll be fun."
If the September game is any indication, what's expected to be a very large crowd -- the schools have been selling advance tickets for more than a week -- will be in for a treat. The players knew it as soon as the seedings were announced two Saturdays ago.
"It was like 10 a.m., and everybody started sending texts," Stockdale linebacker Isaiah Turner said. "It was like, 'Oh, we've got BHS again. And it's at home this time.' ... This is the game of the year, I think."
The Drillers led the first game 14-0 before 10 minutes had been played. They were slated to get the ball back again when Stockdale faked a punt by snapping directly to Malik Henderson, who ran for 30 yards on fourth-and-3.
"We needed that desperately," Henderson said. "That turned the tables for us, and we got some momentum after that play."
Henderson scored three plays later, and, after a Bakersfield fumble, Henderson scored on a fourth-and-1 play from the Bakersfield 10-yard line to quickly tie the game.
"We had fumbles on (three) straight possessions," Welsh said. "... It's lack of concentration and stuff, but we've definitely picked that up and fixed that."
That started what became a 31-6 Stockdale run that put the Mustangs up by 11 with just 7:17 left in the game.
"And then, well, you know what happened after that," Henderson said. "We won't talk about that."
What happened is that Bakersfield staged an improbable rally. Brian Burrell hit Mercy Maston for a 53-yard touchdown pass with 4:59 left to cut the lead to 31-26. Stockdale went three-and-out, and a bad snap on the punt caused a shank that gave BHS the ball at the Mustangs 26. It took the Drillers eight methodical plays to punch in the game-winning TD with 52 seconds to play.
"We were two points away from being 10-0," Snow said. "Now we get a chance to play them again.
Ten weeks later, the teams can't wait for round two.
"We feel like we didn't win; we had five turnovers," BHS running back Alfonso Jackson said. "They probably think they should have won because of the punt. So we'll just go see what happens (tonight)."
Other semifinal spots on line
In the other half of the Division I bracket, No. 5 seed Liberty (7-3) travels to face No. 4 Fresno-Central (7-3) in a game that pits the Patriots' hard-hitting defense against the Grizzlies' lightning-fast skill players, including Brendon Bigelow, a running back who was second in the state's 200-meter dash as a freshman.
In two more all-Kern County matchups, No. 3 Frontier (9-1) hosts No. 6 Garces (7-4) in a Division II quarterfinal, and No. 2 Tehachapi (9-2) gets a visit from No. 10 Foothill (4-7) in D-III. Other Division III quarterfinals include No. 6 Ridgeview (7-5) at No. 3 Porterville (8-3) at No. 5 Hanford (7-4) at No. 4 Delano (9-2).
No. 3 Taft (9-2, vs. Dos Palos) and No. 4 Wasco (9-2, vs. Exeter) both have home games as they begin their quests for the Division IV title.
