Yuba City roughed up early

For 24 minutes at Honker Stadium Friday night, everything was clicking for Yuba City High's football team.

Honker quarterback Taylor Elkins was picking apart the Inderkum secondary, connecting 18 times on 28 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns.

Yuba City's defense held the Tigers' high-octane wing-T offense scoreless and under 100 yards of total offense.

It was a 14-0 advantage for Yuba City, a strong showing against the four-time defending Tri-County Conference champions.

Too bad all of that happened in the second half.

The Honkers fell into a 35-7 hole by halftime and their inspired play in the second half couldn't compensate for the deficit as Yuba City dropped its final home game of the season 35-21.

This was Inderkum's 24th straight TCC victory since the league was formed in 2006.

As good as Yuba City (3-4, 1-1) was over the final two quarters, the first two periods of play left much to be desired.

Inderkum (6-1, 2-0) scored on four of its five possessions with 213 yards of offense in the first half.

On the Tigers' fourth play from scrimmage, the Honkers' defense bit hard on play-action, which allowed quarterback Hunter Royal to connect with D.J. Myart for a 67-yard score.

Eric Walters scored from 37 yards out on the Tigers' next offensive possession.

A Honker turnover on the ensuing possession set up the Tigers at the 10-yard line where they scored easily on a run from Terrence White.

Yuba City was looking to cut the deficit to 14 points right before halftime with the ball on the Tigers' 5-yard line, but Myart recovered a Honker fumble and returned it 95 yards to give Inderkum a 35-7 lead at the half.

"We just made too many mistakes in the first half," Honker coach John Ithurburn said. "We came out in the second half and told the kids to not give up.

"We told them to win the second half and I'm real proud of them."

Yuba City listened to their coach and made things interesting.

Departing from their usual run-based veer attack, which yielded barely over 100 yards rushing, the Honkers opened up Elkins, implementing the spread.

Elkins started the fourth quarter with a 61-yard touchdown drive which was capped by a 4-yard strike in the back of the end zone to James Van Dusen.

On the Honkers' next offensive possession, Elkins hooked up with Anthony Fleenor for a 9-yard score. On that drive, Elkins was 5 for 5 passing. He finished the night 25 for 38 with 282 yards passing, two passing touchdowns and a rushing score.

Now Yuba City will likely have to win out its final three games on the road (Pioneer, Woodland and River Valley) to secure a spot in the postseason.

"You saw that we could play with them," Ithurburn said. "The problem is with the mistakes we make and our youth, we're not able to overcome it.

"If we could just clean it up, how much better would we be?"