The rivalry between the Bakersfield College Renegades and El Camino College Warriors was renewed on Oct. 5, resulting in the Warriors winning by a hair 27-26 at Featherstone Field.

In their 67th meeting since 1947, the National Northern League clash featured a strong offensive performance by the Warriors in the first half and thrilling fourth quarter.

“I thought in the first half we played good football all year long offensively and defensively,” Warriors coach Gifford Lindheim said. “We made some mistakes in the second half and allowed Bakersfield to get back into the game and did what we had to do to win the game.”

The Warriors set the tone early in the first half, recording three touchdowns.

One of those touchdowns came from sophomore defensive lineman Jaggar Tavai who bulldozed his way into the endzone on a one-yard run.

Tavai has four rushing touchdowns in two games.

On the next drive, the Warriors drove down field with Zamir Hall and Azeon Nelson with their rushing attack and a 13-yard reception by Elijah Holmes yards to the Bakersfield 21-yard line for a touchdown.

However, the score was negated after a holding penalty by Aubrey Scott pushed the Warriors 10 yards back to the Bakersfield 23-yard line.

Quarterback Tyler Karen found freshman wide receiver Triston Thomas on the next play for a 23-yard pass for a touchdown on a third-down and 12-yard situation.

The Renegades started their next possession on their own 26-yard line and ended with a touchdown pass from Vincent Igoa to a wide open Jacoby Pointer for 28 yards.

Warriors quarterback Hunter Herrera responded with a two-yard touchdown pass to Damonte Bias, extending the lead to 21-7.

Cooper DiLeva later added on three points on a 30-yard field goal attempt.

With 52 seconds to go in the first half, Karen went down with a leg injury after a late hit on the quarterback.

He did not return to the game and was replaced by Herrera.

“Our offense was definitely hurt, we had two o-linemen hurt, our quarterback was hurt,” Tavai said. “We just knew as a defense, that we had to step up as a defense and try and hold out as long as we could.”

In the second half, Igoa was replaced by freshman quarterback Malachi Statler, who ended the night with 14 pass completions on 20 attempts for 121 yards, and two touchdowns.

Statler said his coaches gave him the opportunity to change the game’s momentum in the fourth quarter, as the Renegades trailed by 10 points.

“We were in a slump for a long time, we really didn’t score,” Statler said. “Our coaches substitute us in and out, they were just like ‘ok, let’s give this other guy a shot and see if he can change the momentum of the game.’”

On second and goal at the El Camino two-yard line, Pointer hauled in a six-yard touchdown pass from Statler, closing the scoring gap to make it a one touchdown game.

Renegades kicker Carlos Villa later failed the extra point attempt.

“I played how I played, I really didn’t do anything special,” Statler said.

In the final 44 seconds in the fourth quarter, sophomore Jalen Richmond hauled in a 10-yard touchdown pass from Statler to keep the game at 27-26.

The Renegade offense lined up for a two-point conversion in an attempt to steal the lead but failed to convert, giving the ball back to the Warriors.

Warriors defensive coordinator Matt Kirk expressed satisfaction with the defensive efforts but acknowledged gaps in the secondary were exposed.

“They [Renegades] were able to run the ball a little bit against us but we were making good adjustments,” Kirk said. “I’m glad that we came through at the end but we got to get better in the secondary, we can’t let receivers catch the ball on us like that.”

Ky’yin Arrington and Brett James of the Warriors contributed to the defensive performance with 10 tackles each.

Freshman linebacker Kaleb McCutcheon who recorded four solo tackles for the night recalled a reminder from one of his coaches that allowed him to be a part of the defensive effort.

“Our DB coach, coach P has a saying: do your one-eleven, which is do your job. I believe that if everybody just does their job then someone’s going to make the play eventually,” the freshman linebacker said.

The Warriors will be on the road to face College of the Canyons on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. after their bye-week.