Ganado Rides Special Teams to Season-Opening Win

By Chris Doelle
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Updated: August 29, 2026

Tidehaven Kept Getting Up. Ganado Kept Finding New Ways to Knock the Tigers Down.

Ganado 49, Tidehaven 26

EL MATON — Four times Friday night, Tidehaven clawed its way back into a game it had no business being in. Four times, something that had nothing to do with the Tigers' offense knocked them right back out of it.

That is how a team that traded punches with Ganado for four quarters lost 49-26 in the season opener at Delvin L. Taska Tiger Stadium.

The scoreboard says blowout. The film will say something closer to a brawl, decided almost entirely on the plays nobody practices in front of a crowd.

The Pattern Sets Itself Early

Ganado announced its intentions on the opening kickoff, attempting an onside. It failed. Tidehaven recovered at the Ganado 48 and drove into scoring range on its first possession of the season.

Then quarterback Stratton Crow put a ball into coverage in the end zone and Beau Bures, a freshman defensive back, came down with it.

That became the shape of the night. Tidehaven earned something. Tidehaven gave it away.

The Indians did not exactly seize the opening. They marched 78 yards on the next series and fumbled it away at the goal line, and the Tigers took over at their own 2. But Ganado had time to be sloppy. Tidehaven did not.

By the end of the first quarter, the Indians had scored twice in 17 seconds of game clock, once on a Landyn Arriaga rollout where the junior threw left-handed to Cade Nixon at the back of the end zone, and once when a botched Tidehaven exchange at midfield put the ball in Logan Bures' hands and he ran 65 yards without being touched.

Down 14-0 with under a minute left in the quarter, the Tigers found something. Crow pulled a high snap out of the air, tucked it, and outran the Ganado defense the length of the field. Three seconds left in the first. Suddenly it was 14-7 and Tiger Stadium had a pulse.

Nixon took the ensuing kickoff and ran it back roughly 80 yards to the Tidehaven 2.

The Best Drive of the Night Came From the Team That Lost

Give the Tigers this: after Ganado punched in the short field to go up 21-7, Tidehaven put together the most complete football of the evening by either team.

Eleven plays. No turnovers. Crow kept it, handed it, hit freshman receiver D.J. Foster on a run that got them to the Ganado 38, and finally fought his way into the end zone himself with 6:03 left in the half. It was patient, physical, grown-up football from a roster full of underclassmen. The extra point clanged off the upright.

That is the whole game in one sequence. Tidehaven did the hard part right and lost a point on the easy part, and Ganado answered with a 58-yard drive before the break to make it 28-13.

Two Quarterbacks, Two Knees, Two Backups

Both teams lost the player their offense was built around.

Arriaga went down for Ganado. Crow tweaked a knee for Tidehaven, and Lucio said afterward the Tigers had designed their entire offense around him.

"He's a dual-threat kid, and we felt like he was getting in his groove there," Lucio said. "We were kind of shooting from the hip."

Ganado's answer was Kyle Stancik, a freshman. He came in and threw a fourth-and-nine strike to Nixon in traffic to save a drive, dropped a deep ball down the left sideline that Logan Bures dove to catch at the 3, and later hit Beau Bures in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

Tidehaven's answer was Jakob Singletary, a sophomore, and for a stretch of the fourth quarter he was the best story on the field. He ripped off a 30-yard quarterback draw. He converted a fourth down with his legs. He rolled right on another fourth down and dropped a touchdown pass into Ashton Klaiber's hands with Noah Cortes draped all over him.

Then the snap on the extra point got away, the holder got tackled, and Tidehaven was still down two scores instead of one.

The Third Quarter Almost Turned

For about four minutes, it looked like a different game.

Ganado fumbled on its second snap after halftime and Jullian Stockton picked it up and took it to the house. 28-20. Tidehaven had cut a 15-point deficit to eight without its offense ever stepping on the field.

The Indians spent the rest of the quarter trying to give it back. They were flagged for holding three separate times. They muffed a punt return and were fortunate to fall on it themselves at midfield. They ran a play from first-and-20 twice.

They still ended the quarter at the Tidehaven 3.

The Play That Ended It

With 3:57 to go and trailing by 16, Lucio called timeout to draw up a fourth-and-10 from the Ganado 26. Tidehaven had already gone for it once and converted. There was no reason to think they would not again.

Singletary ran right. Ganado swarmed. The ball came loose, and Michael Tristan, a junior lineman who had already made a tackle for loss and a horse-collar stop on special teams, picked it up and ran 74 yards the other way.

Ervin did not pretend the win came from anywhere else.

"That was the difference," the Ganado coach said of his kicking game. "The kickoff return, with all the PATs, the PAT blocks. Just super special."

Nobody Quit

The last two minutes told you what Lucio has to work with. Down 23 with the game long decided, Tidehaven went for it on fourth-and-four and Singletary converted with a keeper around the right side. The Tigers were still snapping the ball at the Ganado 46 when the clock hit zero.

"My boys are grinders," Lucio said. "We're gonna be all right."

He may be right, but the calendar is not generous. Tidehaven opens district September 25 at Industrial, a full week before Ganado's league schedule begins. The team with more to fix has less time to fix it.