CALIFORNIA - The California Pintos got the win Friday night.
And they got pushed in the second half. Win-win.
"We can learn something from this," California coach Marty Albertson said after the Pintos held off the School of the Osage Indians 43-29 in a Tri-County Conference contest. "Sometimes you need to get scared a little bit to realize the inensity always needs to be there.
"We weren't quite hitting on all cylinders."
And with an eye down the road, California senior Jaden Barr said the game could prove to be big down the road for the Pintos.
"The more times you face adversity, the more times you get tested, it prepares you for the playoffs," Barr, the starting quarterback/cornerback, said. "When you get to the playoffs, you're going to see better teams and you might be behind and have to fight like we did tonight."
The game wasn't much of a fight early. Barr ran for three touchdowns and threw for another as California led 36-6 with a little less than a minute remaining in the first half. Even after the Indians scored a touchdown with :18 remaining to cut the Pintos' lead to 36-12 at intermission, it looked like the final outcome was all but decided.
"You've got to be OK with putting up 36 points in a half," Albertson said.
That late score gave the Indians a spark for the second half. Osage needed just two plays to get on the board again and it was 36-18 less than a minute into the third quarter.
Osage scored again in the opening minute of the fourth quarter and a 2-point conversion cut California's lead to 36-26. Then a 28-yard field goal by Jake Ulmer pulled Osage to within 36-29 with 5:01 left.
"We were on roller skates there for a little while," Albertson said.
After a California punt, the Indians drove to the Pinto 30 with 1:37 left. But on fourth-and-3, Landon Mouse of the Pintos intercepted a pass to give California the ball back.
Was Albertson comfortable with the ball and so little time left?
"No, I wasn't comfortable until we ran that next one in for a touchown," he said with smile.
On that play, Aaron Kendrick ran a dive play 80 yards for that and the PAT made it 43-29.
"We have faced adversity before and we were fortunate to finish on top," Barr said. "Credit goes to Osage, they played hard all night and got after us."
Mouse, who returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, then got his third interception of the game to halt Osage's final drive.
"We came out a little stagnant, a little stale," Albertson said of the second half effort. "Our defense has played better than that all year."
Barr, who racked up 280 yards of offense in the first half, finished with 171 yards rushing and 211 through the air for the Pintos. His touchdowns came on runs of 23, 12 and 29 yards.
"He broke some tackles and once he gets into the open, he's hard to catch," Albertson said.
Barr's touchdown pass was an athletic play as well. On first-and-10 from the Osage 29, the pass rush forced Barr to scramble back as far as midfield before he hit Walker Borghardt with a pass caught near the line of scrimmage. Borghardt then took off down the sideline for the score.
"The receivers did a great job of coming back for the ball all night to help out," Barr said.
California was successful on three of four 2-point attempts.
Osage quarterback Austin Riley was 17-of-36 through the air for 277 yards and three touchdowns. The scores came from 15 yards to Collin Samuelson, 56 yards to Ulmer and 38 yards to Brad Russell. Ulmer finished with 81 yards on 17 carries, including a 5-yard touchdown.
With the win, California (8-0, 6-0 conference) wrapped up a share of the Tri-County championship. The Pintos can win it outright with a victory Friday at Warsaw.
"That's always our No. 1 goal, to win the conference," Albertson said. "We start talking about it in December. This is a tough conference to win and we didn't want it to slip away."
Osage (6-2, 4-2) wraps up the regular season next Friday at Hallsville.
it was a straight dive play
"It's hard for a team to play their very best every week," Albertson said. "We just came off a big game against Blair Oaks (a 21-10 win), an emotional game we were invested in. It's hard to get up like that for two straight weeks."
"Hopefully we learned a lesson that you have to play your best game against everyone," Albertson said.
Jaden
"He had a great game," Albertson said.
Spread offense, running inside traps
"He broke some tackles and once he gets into the open, he's hard to catch," Albertson said.
Defensive
"He was all over the place," Albertson said.
Saw seomthing in the extra point defense
"On the fourth one they finally covered it, so then it was time to kick," Albertson said.
Conference tied for title. Can win it
"That's always our No. 1 goal, our second is a district championship and the third is a state championship," Albertson said. "We start talking about it in December. This is a tough conference to win and we didn't want it to slip away."
Ended up needing the.
"Those extra points proved to important," Albertson said.
"It wasn't pretty," Barr said.
"We have faced adversity before and we were fortunate to finish on top," Barr said. "Credit goes to Osage, they played hard all night and got after us."
"The receivers were doing a great job of coming back to the ball,"
Defense
"It's always fun scoring, but it's fun to make some plays on defense," Barr said.