COLUSA. CA (MPG) – Coming off their win over Durham two weeks ago, the RedHawks had hoped to continue to build momentum in the latter part of the regular season, but it was not to be as they fell 24-35 to visiting Paradise last Friday night at Larry Yeghoian Field.
A game in which a combined 25 penalties were assessed, 18 of which were committed by the Bobcats, Colusa took an 10-7 lead into intermission, but couldn’t slow down Paradise’s junior running back Evan Higgs, who gashed the RedHawks for big chunks of yardage all night long.
Paradise on Oct. 17 at home.
Kept off the board in the first quarter, Colusa tied the game in the second after Asa Selover took the pitch from David Belmontes and made his way 10 yards into the end zone then took its only lead of the game three minutes before the half when Ricardo Hernandez split the uprights from 28 yards away.
Yet, the Bobcats came out after halftime, playing 13 minutes of penalty free ball and put 21 unanswered points on the board on three Higgs’ touchdown runs to jump ahead 28-10.
The RedHawks did cut the gap to 11 points in the fourth quarter when after converting twice on fourth and long to keep the drive alive, Selover again took the pitch, carrying it in for his second score.
Still, Paradise was able to answer right back to make the score 35-17 then despite getting one more touchdown on a pass from Ayden Rico to Nathan Mez, with a little more than a minute left on the clock, Colusa simply ran out of time.
Although disappointed with the end result, RedHawk head coach Mason Niccum pointed to the positive aspects of his team’s performance saying, “We battled and each week we are getting better. Our kids continue to show up and play hard. I just feel bad for the seniors that we couldn’t get a win for them in their last home game.”
In a game where nothing came easily offensively, Eric Gonzalez shouldered the load carrying 16 times for 68 yards, while Belmontes and Selover rushed for 52 and 43 yards respectively.
For the defense, Hunter Purvis made a team-high eight tackles, Mason Jennings pitched in with five and Kaleb Castanon picked off a pass.
Colusa (2-6, 1-3) now enters a bye week and returns to action on Oct. 31 in Willows.