First quarter TD all Williams needs

With just under three minutes left in the first half  -  and a good scoring opportunity wasted - Williams High coach Dan McDonald yelled out to his players on the field.

"You are going to have to win this game on defense," McDonald screamed.

The squad responded in a big way, holding a struggling Pierce offense to 130 yards of total offense and keeping the Bears out of the end zone for an 8-0 home win in what was announced as the 81st annual Rice Bowl.

It was the second straight year Williams won the Bowl trophy, but only the third time in the last 11 games.

"It feels good. We have not won a lot of these," said David Covarrubias, who quarterbacked the Yellowjackets to the victory and had a first-half interception on the defensive side.

The only score came on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Covarrubias to Humberto Guzman, who made a diving grab and landed on the goal line at the 2:23 mark of the first quarter.

Jesus Camarena, who led Williams (2-1) with 73 yards on 15 carries, ran in the two-point conversion.

Covarrabuias said it was the third time the team had been able to use that particular pass pattern - swinging an inside receiver out into the flat - for a score this season.

It looked like the ‘Jackets would build on their lead when they drove the ball from their own 33-yard line to the Pierce 15 with 3:07 left in the half. But the Bears stopped one run for a yard loss, Covarrubias overshot a receiver in the back of the end zone and a defender tipped away a fourth-down pass attempt to end the threat.

"I had the feeling we were going to have to play good hard defense and shut them out to secure the victory," said McDonald, who said when his team wasn't able to score on that drive, coupled with some injuries to his offensive lineman, he figured the second half was going to be a tough ball-control game. "The guys really stepped up. They stepped up and made some big plays," McDonald said.

After an 0-4 start, Pierce coach Roy Perkins is still looking for someone to step up and make a big play on offense.

"We just haven't been able to make plays," said Perkins, who points to his youthful offense - only one starting senior - as one of the problems. "We run the ball pretty well, but teams load up the box and it makes it hard."

Rudy Godinez had 86 yards on 22 carries for Pierce, although 73 of those came in the first half.

The bright side for the Bears is they have yet to play a league game, so the season is far from being a disaster.

"And we played pretty well on the defensive side of the ball," Perkins said.