2007 Season

2006 Season

Clovis East win leaves 3 tied in TRAC
By Jeff Davis / The Fresno Bee
11/08/08 00:45:41
We should have seen this coming. The Tri-River Athletic Conference can't seem to get out of a football season without at least two or three teams standing arm-in-arm in first place.

Fifth-ranked Clovis East set up that scenario for the second straight year when it knocked off No. 2 Buchanan 35-28 Friday on a night Clovis Unified School District officially named Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High in a halftime ceremony.

Friday's results leave the Timberwolves, Bears and No. 3 Clovis West tied atop the TRAC heading into the final week of the regular season - the same teams that shared the 2007 championship.

Don't expect that to change, because all three finish against unranked opponents that were a combined 3-21 entering this week's games.

It's also not surprising that Clovis East (6-3, 3-1) rose up and took down the Bears (7-2, 3-1). The Timberwolves have won all seven games of this series.

"This feels great that we kept it going. We didn't want to be remembered as the team that lost," said senior linebacker Nate Montagne, whose interception in the first quarter set up a touchdown en route to a 28-12 halftime lead.

"We've been a slow-starting team, and for us to do that made a big difference," Timberwolves coach Tim Murphy said.

But even when the Timberwolves took a 35-20 lead early in the fourth quarter, they knew it wasn't safe with Bears quarterback Lance Orender throwing on almost every down.

Orender completed 33 of 47 passes for 400 yards and four touchdowns. His 9-yard strike to Seth Moranda and 2-point throw to Corvaughn Archie drew the Bears within seven with 6:48 remaining.

Buchanan held the Timberwolves on downs and got the ball back at its 40-yard line 3 minutes later.

Orender drove the Bears to the Clovis East 3 for a first down and just under 2 minutes remaining.

That's where the Timberwolves made their last stand. After Orender ran for 3 yards he threw two incompletions, the second through the hands of Archie in the back of the end zone. On fourth down, Orender backpedaled but couldn't find a receiver. Next thing he knew, Timberwolves 5-foot-6 junior defensive back Jordan Ruiz was smothering him for a 12-yard loss.

"That's the best Buchanan team we've had to play against," said Murphy, in his eighth year at Clovis East.

One of the stars for Clovis East was running back Paul Jimenez. The senior ran 29 times for 124 yards and three touchdowns. And to think he suffered a mild concussion in last week's loss to Clovis West and was listed as a game-time decision.

"The doctor said he was fine, and he really wanted to play," Murphy said.

Jimenez took Monday and Tuesday off then came back hard for practices.

"I was so mad after Clovis West that I wanted to get out there and punish somebody," Jimenez said. "Coach just told me to go in and make it happen."

Timberwolves quarterback Taylor Scott also made things happen. He rushed 14 times for 130 yards and a score. He turned a keeper on the second play of the game into a 65-yard touchdown that got the Timberwolves rolling.

Montagne intercepted Orender on Buchanan's first possession and returned it 50 yards to the Bears 30. Three plays later, Jimenez scored from 10 yards out for a 14-0 lead.

Orender was able to rally Buchanan with scoring passes to Kyle Novak of 14 and 23 yards, and another of 17 yards to Archie.

But when the Bears needed a completion most for the potential tie, Ruiz wouldn't let it happen.

"That was incredible," he said of his sack. "That's the best moment of my life. We bent all night, but we held on and didn't break."

Clovis East 46, Clovis 15

Taylor Scott returned to the lineup and threw touchdown passes of 82 and 26 yards to Steven Bolinger in the No. 5 Timberwolves' TRAC victory.

Clovis East also got four interceptions -- one each from inside linebackers Nate Smith, Dennis Glukhoy and Mark Tom and another from defensive back Colten Fickle.

Paul Jimenez ran for more than 100 yards for the Timberwolves.

Clovis East 42, Davis-Modesto 19

Paul Jimenez ran for 170 yards and four touchdowns and sophomore quarterback Jerry Haymon accounted for three more scores in his first career start as the Timberwolves won in Modesto.

Davis led 13-7 late in the second quarter but Clovis East (3-2) went ahead 14-13 with just seconds left on Haymon's sneak from the 1 and Curtis O'Neill's extra point.

Clovis East dominated the second half, with Jimenez scoring on runs of 21 and 46 yards for a 35-12 lead.

Clovis East takes the good with the bad
T'wolves coach cleared of recruiting violation, but QB sprains ankle in victory.
By Andy Boogaard / The Fresno Bee
09/20/08 00:28:06
SANGER -

Friday brought uplifting news for Clovis East High coach Tim Murphy.

Or did it?

There's no questioning the positive gleaned from a 31-14 nonleague victory for his third-ranked Timberwolves over No. 8 Sanger -- a decision so convincing that the Apaches' portion of a standing-room-only crowd of 6,000 at Tom Flores Stadium never had a chance to let it rip after seeing their team buried, 21-0, in the first quarter.

Off the field, Central Section commissioner Jim Crichlow confirmed earlier in the day Murphy had nothing to do with a spring recruiting violation involving a Sanger eighth-grader. Clovis East, nonetheless, will still be prohibited from hosting playoff games because of the infraction by a school counselor.

But, back on the field, in the big picture, the good has been put on hold, pending the recovery of T'wolves quarterback Taylor Scott, who left Friday's game after spraining his left ankle on the team's final play of the second quarter.

He's The Bee's Tri-River Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year, a senior dynamo perfectly fit for the team's double-wing offense because of his running and throwing ability.

"I should be fine. I'm not going to let this one keep me out," Scott said while supported with crutches afterward.

He has a history of ankle problems, including one on the right leg last season that prevented him from playing all but one snap in a 12-7 section Division I semifinal playoff loss at Bakersfield.

Murphy was encouraged by the prognosis this time: "The trainer said it's a high ankle sprain, but without swelling, so he should be OK."

Aaron Martinez, a junior, took over for Scott and engineered an 11-play, 71-yard, second-half opening scoring drive that appeared to deflate Sanger (1-2) as badly as the 21-0 deficit.

The T'wolves used middle-of-the-line muscle in the all-rushing march that saw Hunter Heuschel's number called on the first seven plays and Jordan Jones the final four, capped by a 1-yard touchdown.

From there, Clovis East (2-1) turned it over to its defense, which all but sealed it with Aaron Ople's tackle for no gain on Mario Navarrete's fourth-and-2 rushing attempt late in the third quarter.

And then it was more of Curtis O'Neill, the game's most valuable player. He kicked a 29-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, made all four of his conversion kicks and drove all six of his kickoffs deep into the end zone or out of it.

That forced the Apaches to begin those possessions from their 20, creating a long field for a team hugely dependent on the run.

"He's a weapon," Murphy said of the senior kicker. "That really makes it tough when a team has to start on its 20 every time."

Four of O'Neill's kickoffs came in the pivotal first quarter. It featured:

William Irwin's recovery in the end zone of Alex Bowser's blocked punt.
Jones' 48-yard touchdown run, which saw the junior take a pitch to the right, appear to be going down -- freezing Sanger's defense -- then dropping his right hand to the ground and regaining his balance before racing into the end zone.
Following an Ople strip and fumble recovery, Paul Jimenez's 22-yard touchdown run after being hit flush behind the line of scrimmage by Arron Gonzalez, one of the area's premier linebackers.
"I don't know how he got away on that one," Gonzalez said. "We've been preparing for this one for a long time. It's a big letdown."

Murphy cleared

Clovis East was sanctioned in large part because the Sanger student was given a DVD of Clovis East football. But Crichlow said it was provided by the student's relative, a school employee, who gave him a tour of the campus.

Essentially, Crichlow said, the employee was acting as an "agent," violating a CIF rule regarding undue influence.

"The rule says anybody associated with a school can get in trouble if they don't pay attention," he said. "So the coach can be hung out to dry without knowing it. Murphy did nothing wrong."

The reporter can be reached at aboogaard@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6336.

Clovis East 21, Redlands 13

Taylor Scott, Paul Jimenez and Hunter Hauschel scored rushing touchdowns and the No. 3 Timberwolves (1-1) never punted while winning on the road against the Terriers (0-2) of the Southern Section.

Clovis East, defeated 41-26 by Heritage-Colleyville of Texas on Labor Day, hasn't lost consecutive games in coach Tim Murphy's eight-year career.

Redlands, two years removed from a 12-1 season, scored with a minute remaining, had its conversion kick blocked and then failed to recover an onside kick.

Center of it all at Clovis East
A grade-school center, QB Scott drives T'wolves' new-look offense.
By Andy Boogaard / The Fresno Bee
09/03/08 20:20:29

Coaches' Poll
First-place votes in parentheses

School Total votes

1. Clovis East (3) 32

2. Clovis West (2) 31

3. Buchanan (1) 27

4. Central 13

4. Clovis 13

6. Madera 10

Seven years ago, the start of football for Taylor Scott found him at center, hiking balls to the quarterback in fifth grade at Temperance-Kutner Elementary School in the Clovis Unified School District.

Today, he can be found at center again, not giving snaps, but receiving them as a senior at Clovis East.

And then the magic begins.

"I block a little, run a little, pass a little," he says. "I love it. Basically, I get to do everything I want."

What Scott does is engineer the double-wing offense about as well as anybody has under Tim Murphy in the coach's eight seasons with the Timberwolves.

That's flattering, considering Murphy's success -- 68-18, with five Tri-River Athletic Conference championships, two Central Section titles and never two losses in a row.

More flattering is the fact the coach has restructured his base offense -- it's more I wing than double wing -- enabling Scott more opportunity to run and pass.

A good quarterback in Murphy's run-dominated system distributes the ball cleanly to wingbacks and a fullback, often sticks his nose into a linebacker's chest as a lead blocker, runs occasionally and throws even less.

A great quarterback in the system is fast, strong, a home-run threat running the ball and a dependable passer. This is Westy Guill, who went 22-4 with a section title in 2003-04.

And this is Taylor Scott, who began last season third on the depth chart, took over in the sixth week because of injuries to the first two quarterbacks, rushed for 217 yards and six touchdowns in routs of Clovis (63-13) and fifth-ranked Central (35-14) in his first starts.

"When he got that first-string role, he put on his business suit, grabbed his lunch box and went to work," Murphy said at the time.

The coach can only wonder what would have happened had not Scott re-injured an ankle on the first play and never returned in a 12-7 loss at Bakersfield in the Division I quarterfinals.

No reason to wonder now.

"We have three running backs [in typical formation]," Murphy says, "but when you have a fourth guy who can run at quarterback, he can really dominate. Westy was bigger and stronger, but Taylor is flat-out faster."

Narrowly missing the state track and field championships last spring as a sprinter, Scott has timed 4.5 seconds over 40 yards and 10.9 in the 100 meters.

And, while 5 feet, 8 inches, he's a 175-pounder packing power in his legs.

They could motor him to the top of quarterback production in the section this season.

An outstanding 2007 class of quarterbacks is gone: Bakersfield's Peter Mitchell, Washington's Ebahn Feathers, Edison's Jerry Davis, El Diamante's Tanner Sneed, Clovis West's Beau Sweeney, Hanford's Tyson Perez, Tulare's Bobby Barnes, Buchanan's Jake Henderson and Redwood's Brett Brodersen.

So at the center of attention is a former elementary school center.

"It's always been my dream to play quarterback," Scott says. "Winning the Valley's definitely a reasonable goal for us. And I'd like to try and think state championship. Why not shoot for the stars? I want that so bad."

The reporter can be reached at aboogaard@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6336.