Pintos' defense shuts out Versailles

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Bloomberg

The California football team would like people to forget about the first two weeks of the season and focus more on Friday night's 42-0 blowout win against the Versailles Tigers.

The Pintos' defense flexed their muscle, holding Versailles to a 0-for-6 fourth down efficiency, and scoring two touchdowns off interceptions.

"It's the third game this season and they're starting to get it," California head coach Marty Albertson said. "As a defense, to make it work you have to make it work as a team. Everybody has to do their job and tonight, they did a good job at it."

Josh Woodruff and Landon Mouse highlighted the defensive play, each having interceptions returned for touchdowns, and 13 different Pintos recorded a tackle. Sophomore Jacob Wolken was tied for the lead in tackles with sophomore Liam Glenn and senior Hunter Heimericks with four, and Wolken tallied two tackles of loss.

"It's a confidence booster," Mouse said on his team's defensive play. "We needed that. We kind of had a rough game last week. We had a good week of practice."

Versailles' offense was held to 93 total yards, and could only get as close as the California 28-yard line. That came on the Tigers' final drive of the game, as time was running out in the fourth quarter.

On the Tigers' first offensive drive, California held the Tigers to a three-and-out. On a punt attempt, senior Brandon Gump broke through the offensive line and sacked the punter attempting a rugby-style punt. That gave California the ball on the Tigers' 15-yard line.

Facing a fourth-and-one on the Tigers' 6-yard line, Wolken pushed forward on a quarterback sneak for four yards to set up a first-and-goal from the 2-yard line. On the next play, Dylan Ratcliff found the end zone after Wolken and Ratcliff fumbled the hand off exchange to take a 7-0 lead.

On the next Versailles offensive snap, Woodruff read Versailles quarterback Duane Danner's eyes as he scrambled right. Woodruff jumped the wide receivers route for the interception, and was able to take the ball 22 yards for the touchdown, pushing the lead to 14-0.

"Honestly, I just played the way the coaches told me to play," Woodruff said. "I was in the right place at the right time and I just took it to the house."

The two teams traded three-and-outs, before Versailles moved the ball near midfield late in the first quarter. On a third-and-10, Danner's pass just miss the hands of a California defender, but Mouse was there to intercept the ball anyway. Mouse pointed out his blocks, ran over would-be tacklers on his way to the end zone for a 50-yard pick-6.

The score gave California a 21-0 lead at the end of he first quarter.

"I just read the quarterback, came up on him," Mouse said. "I had blockers out front, and the blockers just led the way for me."

The passing game started to click for Wolken late in the second quarter, completing a 35-yard pass to Woodruff to set up a first-and-goal opportunity.

"I tell you what, we threw every day for like 25 minutes. Just to the receivers," Albertson said. "That's what takes, just repetition, repetition and letting him see reads and where he should throw."

Wolken scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak to extend the lead to 28-0 with two minutes remaining in the first half.

On the next Versailles drive, the Tigers faced a fourth-and-two with 30 second left in the half, and they decided to go for it on their own 28-yard line. Glenn tackled running back Dalton Schmidt for a loss of 3 yards to give California another chance to score before halftime.

After Wolken's pass on first down fell incomplete, Wolken found Ethan Hodges on the left sideline on an out-route, then Hodges used his speed to get up the field for a 25-yard touchdown.

"He made some great reads, like when we ran slant patterns, he picked the out pattern because he knew the corner came in on that slant and he was wide open and scored," Albertson said.

Wolken completed 6-of-9 passes for 155 yards and a touchdown. He also led the team with 11 carries for 40 yards and a rushing touchdown.

Mouse led the team in receiving yards with 64 on two receptions, and Hodges at two catches for 43 yards.

The sixth and final touchdown came in the third quarter when Gunner Baquet found a hole and scored from 5-yards out. The touchdown was set up by Mouse's 40-yard reception to get into Tigers' territory, then Woodruff busted a 14-yard rush to get to the 5-yard line.

"Our offensive line has improved a bunch," Albertson said. "None of those players were at the varsity level. It's brand new for them. We made a couple of changes to help our depth, and it seems to be working."

California (1-2, 1-0 Tri Country Conference) will be back on the road Friday night, traveling to Eldon for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

"You know, we're pretty hyped right now, but we need to settle down and watch some game film because we have a big game next weekend," Mouse said.