Photo by Aaron Crutchfield - Atascadero’s Conner Allen gains yardage during the Greyhounds’ 19-14 win over Righetti on Friday.

After two mistakes in the fourth quarter erased three quarters of domination, the halfback pass play put the Atascadero High School varsity football team in the win column, 19-14 against Righetti in the PAC 7 League opener for both teams.

“We’ve run that play 100 times in practice, just waiting for a situation like this,” said Nick Tenhaeff, who threw the 23-yard pass to Nick Jackson with 1:42 left in the game. “[Coach Vic] Cooper called it at the right time and it just happened to open up for us.”

For three quarters, the Greyhound defense had its way with the Warriors. Righetti held the ball eight times in the first three quarters; seven possessions ended in punts and the other ended at halftime. Meanwhile, Tenhaeff had a rushing touchdown in the first quarter and another in the third quarter as the Hounds built a 13-0 lead and appeared to be in complete control of the game.

But as soon as the fourth quarter began, the wheels seemed to fall off.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Brad Smet’s pass fell incomplete. On the second play, a fumbled snap put the Warriors on the Atascadero 30-yard line. After Righetti drove to the eight-yard line, a pass interference penalty gave the Warriors first-and-goal at the five. Two plays later, a six-yard touchdown pass put Righetti on the board at 13-7 with 8:54 left in the game.

On the Hounds’ next drive, a 21-yard Tenhaeff run was negated by a holding penalty and the Hounds were eventually forced to punt. But the snap was bad and all punter Nathan Stein could do was kick the ball out of bounds to keep the Warriors from pouncing on the live ball. Righetti got the ball at the 23-yard line.

Righetti’s own bad snap put the Warriors on their own 41-yard line and a nine-yard loss on the next play set up third-and-37. But a 36-yard pass set up fourth-and-one, and a seven-yard run kept the drive alive. Later, the Warriors went for it again on fourth down and got a one-yard touchdown run. The extra-point kick gave Righetti a 14-13 lead with 2:47 left in the game.

After an incomplete pass, a holding penalty and a sack put the Hounds in third-and-27 at their own 18-yard line, Smet completed a 47-yard pass to Trevor Demster to keep hope alive. Three plays later, Smet gave the ball to Tenhaeff, who found an open Jackson in the end zone.

“I can’t believe it worked, actually,” Cooper said. “When we got down here with the long pass to Demster, they pressured up a little more. I had a feeling that we might catch some guys peeking in the backfield, and as soon as we sent Tenhaeff out there, those two guys on the edge came after the run. Sometimes that’s the hardest throw in the world when he’s wide-open.”

Although the two-point conversion failed, the Hounds had a 19-14 lead and needed to hold on for another 1:42.

After returning the kickoff to their own 26-yard line, the Warriors completed passes of eight and seven yards before the drive stalled with a pair of incompletions, a false-start penalty and a zero-yard pass play set up fourth-and-15. The fourth-down pass also fell incomplete, giving the Hounds the ball back.

From there, the Hounds only needed to take a knee to end the game with a win.

Smet was 6-for-15 passing for 165 yards, while Tenhaeff’s only pass was complete for 23 yards. Jackson caught three passes for 85 yards, while Conner Allen caught one for 41 yards, Demster had one for 48 yards, Holloway had one catch for 12 yards and Tenhaeff caught one for seven yards. Meanwhile, Tenhaeff rushed for 175 yards on 30 carries.

The Hounds improved to 4-2 overall, 1-0 in PAC 7 play, and will host San Luis Obispo on Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.