Shafter's state title bid slips away in 20-7 loss to Orland
Dec. 11—The most surprising thing about the Division 5-A state championship was that Shafter and Orland even made it to 27 combined points.
Faced with impossibly muddy conditions due to the rain up north, neither offense could play anything resembling its finest game on the most important night of the year.
But the Generals, who ran a balanced offense all season, suffered far more than the run-heavy Trojans in the unfavorable conditions. Talented freshman quarterback Ezekiel Osborne and the passing game never found their rhythm Saturday night, and the Shafter offense came up empty in the second half while also gifting Orland a pick-six, a safety and three late turnovers on downs.
And so it came to pass that the Trojans, not the Generals, claimed their first-ever state title in front of their home crowd. They wrapped up a 20-7 win and an undefeated season, with a record of 15-0 on the year.
Orland posted 216 yards of offense — all on the ground — and had the luxury of playing with the lead for the whole second half, which gave the Trojans the ability to drain the clock without hesitation.
Their most masterful series, however, was the one that gave them the lead late in the first half, a 16-play, 62-yard drive that ate up more than nine minutes of the second quarter. It was kept alive by a surprise direct snap to fullback Alex Dominguez on a crucial fourth down, and culminated in a 1-yard rushing touchdown for quarterback Grant Foster, who had himself converted an even longer fourth down.
Foster, who became the Trojans' all-time leading rusher in their regional bowl win over Lakeport-Clear Lake, shouldered most of the load again Saturday and provided Orland's only other offensive touchdown on a 65-yard run early in the second quarter.
That run, a sprint around right end, turned the tide against Shafter, which had taken a 7-0 lead just one play earlier on a 5-yard plunge by Christopher Espinoza, set up by a 19-yard Rafael Roman-Amador toss right and 23-yard connection from Osborne to Jesus Figueroa.
That drive could have been Shafter's breakthrough after the teams traded six quick punts to start the game; instead, the Trojans immediately brought things almost back to square one. (Almost, because the ensuing point after was no good, so it was 7-6.)
After falling behind 12-7, Shafter had several opportunities to retake its lead in the third quarter and force Orland to alter its ground-and-pound strategy somewhat. The Generals' defense held Foster to one yard on a third-and-7 to force a punt on the opening drive, but then a bad quarterback-center exchange killed the Shafter offense's momentum.
Once again the defense came through by falling on a Foster fumble near midfield. However, on the very next play, Osborne lobbed a quick screen to the flat and it was intercepted by Foster himself, who returned it all the way for a touchdown to make it 18-7.
The Trojans couldn't convert a point-after following any of their three scores, but they picked up two points a different way soon enough. After a punt pinned Shafter back at its own 5-yard line, Osborne fell on another snap in the end zone for a safety.
That miscue provided Orland its final margin of victory. Shafter still trailed by just two scores, but after a 20-yard run by Espinoza early in the fourth quarter, turned the ball over on downs due to a negative play and three straight incompletions. The Trojans used drives of seven and six plays to burn clock as the Generals, engineers of countless comebacks this season, never found their way back to the end zone.
Shafter finished its historic season at 11-5, as the holder of both the D-IV section title — its first valley championship since 1955 — and the 5-A Southern California title.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
