Photo by Aaron Crutchfield - Atascadero High School quarterback Brad Smet scrambles for some yardage during the Greyhounds’ 24-10 win over Redwood on Friday in Visalia. The team improved to 2-2 with the win.

The prior week, the inability to sustain drives hurt the Atascadero High School varsity football team, but on Friday, the Greyhounds sustained drives and it led to a 24-10 win over Redwood in Visalia that evened the team’s record at 2-2.

“I think that always helps you out,” Atascadero coach Vic Cooper said of the sustained drives. “We’ve got a lot of guys banged up, and when you can give your defense a little rest and keep them off the field, it’s going to make them that much more efficient when they do go out there.”

The defense responded and held the Rangers to 156 total yards of offense. Forty-two of those came on a single passing play from quarterback L.J. Madrid to Jon Bueno in the third quarter that helped set up Redwood’s only touchdown, a six-yard run by Josh Ramos with 2:09 left in the third quarter to pull Redwood to within 17-10.

Other than that, the Rangers could get little going on offense, with five drives ending in punts and another in an interception by Gavin Cracknell.

“We really stepped up this game,” Cracknell said. “Our defense held strong and was a lot better. We’d been giving up big plays in the other games and we held better this game. We knew we were a better team than how we had been playing.”

Meanwhile, the Atascadero offense was busy getting the running game established, as running backs Nick Tenhaeff and Sterling Bullard combined for 232 of the team’s 303 yards on the ground. The Hounds had 384 yards of total offense.

The scoring started for Atascadero with a 42-yard Nathan Stein field goal with 6:20 left in the first quarter on the Hounds’ initial possession. The Hounds then scored in the second quarter on a drive that would have ended in a punt except that the Rangers committed a roughing the kicker penalty. Quarterback Brad Smet completed a 34-yard pass to Alex Wolf later in the drive to help set up a six-yard touchdown run by Tenhaeff with 6:03 left before halftime, with Stein’s extra-point kick putting the team ahead 10-0, where the score stayed until halftime.

The Rangers returned the second-half kickoff to the Atascadero 33-yard line but the Atascadero defense came up big again, limiting the Rangers to a 30-yard field goal. The Hounds then responded with an 11-play, 71-yard drive capped by Tenhaeff’s 15-yard touchdown run with 5:27 left in the third quarter for a 17-3 lead.

After the Rangers scored their touchdown in the third quarter, the Hounds’ defense held Redwood in check the rest of the way, with Cracknell’s interception coming late in the fourth quarter at the Redwood 22. Tenhaeff scored from 13 yards out with 3:14 left in the game to seal the 24-10 win. The Hounds had first-and-goal at the two-yard line on the final play of the game but took a knee.

“This week, we worked a lot harder,” Smet said. “We didn’t want to come out and lose another game.”

The Hounds are 2-0 on the road but 0-2 at home. After a bye this week, the team will attempt to change that on Friday, Oct. 10 against Sanger.

“Next one’s homecoming and our fans won’t take too kindly to a homecoming loss,” Cooper said.