Taking care of business
Tigers hold off late Baker charge, earn No. 1 seed in GOL

By Scott Ford
Argus Observer
scottf@argusobserver.com
Saturday, October 31, 2009 10:34 PM PDT

Scott Ford | Argus Observer An Ontario Tiger defender drags down a Baker ball carrier during the Tigers 28-20 Greater Oregon League victory Friday in Ontario. It was the play of Ontario’s defense that stood out as they limited the Bulldogs to 225 total yards. With the win, Ontario locked up the No. 1 seed from the GOL and with a win Friday at Mac-Hi, the Tigers will regain the GOL title.

Ontario—The Ontario Tiger football team did what it needed to do to secure a No. 1 seed from the Greater Oregon League Friday with a 28-20 victory over the visiting Baker Bulldogs.

A win over Mac-Hi Friday and the Tigers will be the GOL champs.

“Playing at home in the playoffs is huge,” Ontario head coach Randy Waite said. “But we still have one game left to play before we can think about the state tournament. And following the game that is what the team was focused on, beating Mac-Hi.”

The Tigers had no trouble handling the Bulldogs for the first three quarters of play, as Ontario built a comfortable 21-6 lead.

The undefeated Bulldogs, though, did not go down without a fight.

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Nine seconds into the third stanza, Baker launched a come-from-behind offensive.

Baker punched the ball into the end zone late in the third quarter to cut the margin to 21-12, but Ontario answered with a scoring drive of its own on its next possession, to take what appeared to be a commanding 28-12 lead.

Then the Bulldogs switched to a no-huddle offense which caused immediate problems for the Ontario defense.  Baker marched down the field and scored again to slice Ontario’s advantage to 28-20. The only problem was, the game clock had dwindled down to under a minute to play when they scored. The problem that Ontario faced with Baker’s no-huddle offense was its pass rush over pursuing the Baker quarterback, which allowed him to scramble down field for big gains.

Baker head coach Dave Johnson said his team made some plays, but they were too little too late.

“The credit goes to Ontario, they played a great game,” Johnson said. “They took it to us.”

Waite said the no-huddle offense did effect his defense and it will be something they will work on at practice.

“It’s my fault. I did not have the team ready to play against a no-huddle look,” Waite said. “But even then our defense did a good job adjusting and made some plays.”

Ontario, finally had some time consuming drives in its win over Baker, something Waite wanted to see his team accomplish.

“It was nice to see that we won the time of possession stat,” Waite said. “ I do not think that has happened since I have coached at Ontario.”

Waite praised the play of his team in the win over Baker.

“Jordan Lang played a great physical game for us. Probably his best game of the season,” Waite said. “Our defense did a good job, especially the secondary.”

For the game, the Tigers tallied 209 yards of offense. Frank Lopez led the team with 108 yards rushing and two scores. Matt Anthony and Nico Martinez each picked up scores in the win.

The Tigers will wrap up the regular season with a road trip to Mac-Hi on Friday.