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Weekend Sat —8-man — Champion Christian at Mercy, Noon Sat — Volleyball — Corning, Mercy at Hamilton City Tournament Sat — Volleyball — Red Bluff at Reno Tournament Sat — Cross — Corning at Bill Springhorn Invitational U.S. Open — Saturday, 8 a.m., CBS; Sunday, 8 a.m. Sun — NASCAR— Emory Healthcare 500, 4:30 p.m., ESPN Sports 1B Weekend September 4-5, 2010 Rough start FOOTBALL Week 1 Scoreboard Friday’s results Corning 36, Las Plumas 0 Pleasant Valley 51, Red Bluff 8 Los Molinos at Portola, late Bradshaw Christian 68, Biggs 0 Central Valley 31, Trinity 0 Colfax 21, Durham 13 Enterprise 21, Anderson 0 Lassen 28, Chico 26, OT Lindhurst 29, Orland 22 River Valley 21, Sutter 20 Shasta 33, West Valley 14 Yreka 39, Mt. Shasta 15 East Nicolaus at Rio Vista, late Esparto at Winters, late Hamilton at Pierce, late Hoopa Valley at Etna, late Live Oak at Colusa, late Oroville at Wheatland, late Quincy at Chester, late University Prep at Weed, late Williams at Maxwell, late Willows at Gridley, late Friday’s 8-man results Dunsmuir 52, Princeton 6 Hayfork 66, Liberty Christian 35 Westwood 36, Happy Camp 6 Elk Creek at Greenville, late Saturday’s games Deer Valley vs.Paradise at Foothill, 4:30 p.m. Edison at Foothill, 7 p.m. Saturday’s 8-man games Champion Christian at Mercy, Noon Herlong at Loyalton, 1 p.m. Tehama Tracker VOLLEYBALL Jason Halley/Chico Enterprise-Record Red Bluff’s Jeff Foster is tackled by Pleasant Valley’s Kyle Forbis, Friday night. FOOTBALL Red Bluff 8 Pleasant Valley 51 By NICK WILSON MediaNews Group CHICO — The Pleasant Val- ley Vikings gave new Red Bluff coach John Miller a rude wel- coming to the coaching ranks, Friday night, with a 51-8 thrash- ing of the Spartans. Though the Pleasant Valley offense was sporadic throughout the night, the team established stability through the efforts of junior running back Jordan Roach, who ran for 168 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, leading to the blowout in the season opener for both teams at Asgard Yard. That was all that Pleasant Val- ley High coach Sterling Jackson could ask for. “We knew starting out the run game would be the key until we got some other things dialed in,” Jackson said. “We also knew our defense would be strong. They showed that and gave us time to get our young offense going. Roach carried, (Josh) Kopeck did some things on special teams. It’s hard. It’s a hard game. It’s the first game of the year. It’s OK. I’m not having a bad time.” Special teams were just as crucial in the Spartans’ loss, par- ticularly with the punting of Pleasant Valley senior Smith Heath and the kicking of sopho- more Brody Hill. On three occa- sions, Heath pinned the Spartans inside their own 10-yard line and once on the two, while Hill was a perfect 6 for 6 in PAT attempts. Both earned high praise from Jackson. “Every PAT made. Every punt killed it inside the 10. That’s a big battle right there,” Jackson said. “Hats off to our sophomore kicker (Hill). Hats off to Smith (Heath). Like I told the kids, you win every battle you’re going to win the game.” And the Vikings won the first battle of the night when they forced a three-and-out on defense and proceeded to score on an eight-play touchdown drive on offense. Roach punctu- ated the series with an 11-yard TD run, taking the ball up the middle before bouncing outside and sprinting up the sideline. But perhaps Roach’s most electrifying play came just prior to the half. On third-and-10 on the 50- yard line, Roach took the hand- off from quarterback Eric Ascen- cio, burst through the line and broke three tackles before being taken down one yard out from the goal line. “I just found a seam and head- ed right through it,” Roach said. “Just like coach told me to.” With three seconds left, Ascencio muscled into the end zone just before the buzzer sounded. That put the Vikings up 23-0 at halftime. Coming out of the break though, the PV offense began to slow, while Red Bluff’s came to life. And at the 1:58 mark of the third quarter, the Spartans finally put their first points on the board when quarterback Cody Case hit Jared Foley coming over the middle for a 29-yard touchdown. However, the Spartan only served to awaken the Vikings, who then erupted for 28 unan- swered points in the fourth quar- ter and put the game well beyond Red Bluff’s reach. With touch- downs runs from Josh Kopeck, Gary Hemmingsen and Cody Pit- man, as well as a touchdown pass from Ascencio to Shane Wallen, PV killed any hope of a late-game comeback for Spar- tans. Red Bluff (0-1) plays Shasta next week at a game that will be played at Enterprise High School. Shasta evened their record at 1-1, with a win Friday against West Valley. Nick Wilson is a sports writer for the Chico Enterprise-Record. Hamilton City Tournament The Lady Warriors went 2-1, Thursday, at Hamilton City’s volleyball tournament. Mercy came back to beat Live Oak 20-25, 25-23, 15- 6 and swept Princeton 25-20, 25-17. Willows beat Mercy 25-13, 25-17 for the Lady War- riors loss. The day before the tournament, Mercy earned a tough five-game win over Dunsmuir, 25-19, 18-25, 11- 25, 25-17, 17-15. The Lady Warriors are 3-2 on the season. Billingsley pitches Dodgers past Giants Giants 4 L.A. Dodgers 2 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chad Billingsley hit a go- ahead two-run single in the fourth inning and limited the San Francisco Giants to two hits over eight innings, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 4-2 victory Friday night. The Giants, who had their two-game winning streak snapped, remained three games behind first-place San Diego in the NL West. The Dodgers stayed eight games behind Philadelphia in the wild-card race while ending a two-game skid. Billingsley (11-8) allowed two runs, struck out seven and walked two. Both runs were unearned, the result of a fourth- inning error by shortstop Rafael Furcal, who came off the disabled list earlier Friday. Furcal misplayed a leadoff grounder by Freddy Sanchez, Aubrey Huff then singled off the glove of second baseman Ryan Theriot and both runners scored on Buster Posey’s two-out single over the head of a leaping Furcal. Billingsley pitched a complete-game 2-0 shutout against the Giants on July 21. Hong-Chih Kuo pitched the ninth to earn his eighth save in nine chances. Billingsley singled off Barry Zito (8-11) with two outs in the fourth, putting the Dodgers ahead 4-2. Zito walked Matt Kemp and Casey Blake to open the inning. After getting Ronnie Belliard and Reed Johnson out, Zito intentionally walked Rod Barajas to load the bases, setting up Billingsley to help himself. Right fielder Jose Guillen tried to field Billingsley’s hit, but it rolled under his glove. Zito gave up four runs and four hits in four innings, struck Jason Halley/Chico Enterprise-Record Red Bluff’s Benny Goodman pulls down Pleasant Valley’s Josh Kopeck. out five and walked four in losing his fifth consecutive start. He is 0-7 in his last 10 outings and hasn’t gotten past the fourth inning in his previous four starts. Blake singled to lead off the second and scored on Bara- jas’ homer into the left-field pavilion that gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Barajas has four homers and eight RBIs in eight games since joining Dodgers in a trade from the New York Mets on Aug. 22. Cardinals rushing game crushes Thunderbirds in first half FOOTBALL Corning 36 Las Plumas 0 By JOSEPH SHUFELBERGER MediaNews Group OROVILLE — High school football teams nor- mally try to work out the kinks during season open- ers, and Friday night’s con- test between Corning and Las Plumas was no differ- ent. The visiting Cardinals walked away with plenty of things to work on, but they also ran away with an easy 36-0 victory at Harrison Stadium. Penalties and special- team miscues kept Corning from looking sharp, but the Thunderbirds couldn’t muster any momentum on offense as their turnovers outnumbered their first downs 3-2. The Cardinals put Las Plumas away with a 24- point outburst in the second quarter to take a 30-0 half- time lead. Corning finished the first half with 322 rushing yards on 26 carries. The Cardinals’ core of Cameron Nye, Tyler McIn- tyre, Ryan Holland and J.D. Whited all received plenty of rest after halftime, combining for five carries, and that included Holland’s kneel down to end the game. “We wanted to get the football to a lot of guys,” Jason O'Hanlon/Chico Enterprise-Record See CARDS, page 2B Corning’s Cameron Nye rushes for a first down during the first quarter of Friday’s game.