A potential game-winning drive for Turlock High fell just short on Friday night at Joe Debely Stadium when a Scout Silva pass fell to the ground on fourth-and-15 at their own 13 yard line with 46 seconds to play. The turnover on downs helped Central of Fresno come away with a 28-22 win to maintain their undefeated, 3-0, record while dropping the Bulldogs to 1-2.

Silva, a freshman starting at quarterback for the Bulldogs, experienced his toughest test to date against Central, the CIF Central Section runner-up a season ago. He was pressured nine times, sacked four times and was on the turf twice following roughing the passer penalties throughout the night. It didn’t help that the Bulldogs were still without offensive lineman Andrew Sevilla, who is out most of the year with a knee injury, and lost Time Sitala Jr. to a knee injury early in the second quarter of Friday’s contest.

“It was just straight up brutal out there,” said Turlock head coach James Peterson, who nearly lost his voice by game’s end. “It felt like a boxing match where guys are shoulder to shoulder and just slugging it out and hammering each other.”

The Grizzlies were on the board less than two minutes into the game when linebacker Marcus Nolen, who has committed to play baseball at Fresno State next year, returned an interception for 44 yards.

Silva and the Bulldog offense didn’t go down without a fight though. The 5-foot-7, 165-pound quarterback finished the game with 173 passing yards and 87 rushing yards and three combined touchdowns. But the Central defense made plays when it mattered most.

After the Bulldogs scored on their first drive of the second half to cut the lead to 21-15, the Grizzlies held their opponents scoreless until just under four minutes left in the game. And at that point, their lead had grown to 28-15. 

After the early pick-six, Silva led the Bulldogs on an 11 -yard drive that was capped off by a 21-yard quarterback keeper on fourth-and-2. They took an 8-7 lead after senior Leo Contreras punched in the two-point conversion. After forcing a Bulldog punt, the Grizzlies made it a 14-8 ballgame when junior running back Brandon Smith ran the ball in from 13 yards out. Another Turlock punt led to a 15-play Central drive that included a pair of fourth-down conversions, including a 3-yard rushing touchdown from Smith on fourth-and-goal to make it 21-8 midway through the second quarter. Silva’s second score came on a 6-yard scramble on their opening drive of the second half. Then, the four-drive drought came, eventually leading to Central’s fourth touchdown, which once again came courtesy of Smith as he hauled in a 1-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Jelani Dippel.

The Bulldogs scored quickly on the ensuing drive. Silva connected with junior wideout Landen Fitzgerald for a gain of 36 yards. He then found senior Junior Silva for a 28-yard touchdown to make it 28-22 at the 3:58 mark. On the next drive, the Grizzlies ran six plays and milked three minutes off the clock, eventually turning the ball over on downs at the Turlock goal line with a minute-and-a-half left before the Bulldogs themselves failed to convert in the waning seconds of play.

“They run a similar defense to what I would say Turlock High School is used to running in the past,” Peterson said of Central. “It’s more of an attack-style defense, bringing a lot of bodies in the box to tell the other team ‘You're gonna throw the ball to beat us.’ And then they had great coverage on top of that. So that's how they're able to do that. They're really doing a great job over there. They really put our line to the test. We saw that half our line has got a lot of experience, half of our line needs a lot of work.”

Turlock’s defense also had their fair share of missing players. Senior defensive back Jeremiah Stine missed Friday’s game after injuring his ankle in last week’s 24-19 win over Tracy. In that same game, defensive end Levi Cook was ejected after an on-field altercation with an opposing player, leading to a suspension against Central. Senior linebacker Dominick Luna remained out, having not seen game action all year because of academics.

And the schedule won’t get any easier for Turlock as they are set to take the long bus ride to Folsom to take on the reigning Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 and CIF Division 1-A State champion Bulldogs, who are coming off a bye week after losing to Junipero Serra 22-21 on Sept. 31.

“We just gotta keep going, man. We're gonna get on a bus and go all the way up to Folsom and play those guys, and we're gonna play them as tough as we can,” the always-optimistic Peterson said. “I'm excited to see what our little Bulldogs do up there against the big Bulldogs, hopefully with Jayso (Stine) and Cook back for us. I'm looking forward to it.”