Thanks to a comeback 29-21 victory in Santa Rosa Saturday, the 15th ranked Reedley College Tiger football team will take a record of 4-1 into the start of Valley Conference play on Oct. 14.

Coach Rob Hartenfel's squad will face the undefeated Contra Costa College Comets at 1pm  in the conference opener for both teams that day. Contra Costa replaced West Hills Coalinga as one of the conference teams in 2023. Contra Costa is coming off a 23-7 victory over a winless Chabot squad on Saturday.

In Santa Rosa Saturday night, the Tigers trailed 21-6 with nine minutes left in the third quarter before scoring the game's final 23 points. Reedley took the lead for good with 11 minutes and two seconds left in the game on freshman Landon Almeida's 2-yard scoring pass from quarterback DJ Stevenson, capping a 92-yard drive in 10 plays. It was Almeida's first touchdown catch of the season.

But the Tiger head coach first had to praise the Tiger defense in his Sunday afternoon comments. "The defense played super tough and never gave up. Our punt team and punter helped back up SantaRosa's field position and led to a third quarter safety to late in game in the third quarter to cut the defect to 21-15.

Key plays in the go ahead drive were a first down run of 17 yards by Contae Cason (who finished with 104 yards on 27 carries) and a 39-yard pass from Stevenson to Ladanian Streets to get the ball to the five.

"DJ led some big drives in the second half," said the coach. On defense, Amarian Hunter had an outstanding game on the defensive line. The Tiger secondary held Santa Rosa (who came into the game in the state passing stats) to 202 yards, their lowest total of the season.

Stevenson opened the scoring with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Dowie midway in the opening quarter. Stevenson finished 9 of 19 for 163 yards as Reedley outgained the Bear Cubs 385-269.

Six teams with 4-1 records remain in California with Contra Costa one of eight undefeated teams halfway through the 2023 season.