Varsity Ranger gridders
on a roll
By Jesse Phelps

Ryan Whitcomb threw two touchdown passes and Nordhoff running backs rolled up 236 rushing yards in a 42-7 demolition of Bishop Diego Garcia High School at Santa Barbara City College Friday night.

The CIF Division XI No. 4 Rangers (4-1, 2-0) used a balanced offensive attack and a stifling defense to rack up their fourth straight victory and second straight Tri-Valley League win. Nordhoff scored 21 points in the second quarter and 14 more in the third to put away the Cardinals (2-3, 1-1).

Will Strong again led the Ranger rushing attack, scoring twice on runs of 2 yards and 1 yard, and gaining 129 yards on 16 carries. Josh Catlett also scored and picked up 63 rushing yards on eight carries.

Catlett and younger brother Casey also dominated on the other side of the ball, leading a Ranger defense that shut out Bishop in the second half. Between them, the Catlett brothers recorded 12 tackles and one and one-half sacks.

"Even though he's only a sophomore, Casey handles the defense really well for us," said Nordhoff head coach Cliff Farrar.
Evan Shanbrom also contributed mightily to the Ranger defense with 10 tackles and half a sack. The Rangers recovered two fumbles on the evening, one by Marty Vogel (who also had nine tackles and one rushing touchdown) and the other by Ryan Middlemiss (six tackles).

But the heart of the Nordhoff success, as it has been for years, came on the ground.

"I thought all our running backs played well tonight, I mean, everybody had a touchdown," said Farrar. "And our receivers caught the ball well tonight and Ryan threw the ball well."
Though Nordhoff continued to do damage through the air, Farrar stated that everything still starts with a run-first philosophy. He gave credit to his play-caller for taking advantage of the strengths of his ball club, but stopped short of calling it a changing of the guard for the old Nordhoff offense.

"Scott Titus just does a real nice job as offensive coordinator," said Farrar. "He wants to open things us a little but and I've got to let him do that. We're going to run the ball and we're going to play action off of it. But we've got to be able to come out and throw the ball on third and eight, which we did tonight. We've been practicing real hard the last two weeks on throwing the football."

It showed. Already leading 21-7 late in the second quarter after two scores from Strong and the Catlett touchdown, Nordhoff drove 58 yards in 20 seconds, highlighted by a 24-yard reception by Clark Bigler. The drive ended with just 5.2 seconds on the clock when Whitcomb hit Andy Doyle on a 5-yard scoring pass.

In the third quarter, it was Bigler who found the end zone for the first time on the year, catching another 5-yarder from Whitcomb, who finished six of 10 for 94 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. His 40-yard connection with Strong was the Rangers' longest pass-play of the year.

The Rangers have won their last three games by a combined 92 points, an average margin of victory of over 30 points. Their next game takes place Friday at Fillmore at 7:30 p.m. to be preceded as usual by the junior varsities at 4:30 p.m.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

Back to sports

Back to the news