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Thursday Volleyball playoffs — Portola at Los Molinos, 7 p.m. NFL —Bears at Dolphins, 5 p.m., NFLN NBA— Suns at Magic, 5:15 p.m., TNT NBA— Nuggets at Trail Blazers, 7:30 p.m., TNT NCAAF — UCLAat Washington, 5 p.m., ESPN NHL— Sharks at Stars, 5:30 p.m., CSNC Sports 1B Thursday November 18, 2010 Mercy JV wins league title Friday football N4 Mercy at N2 Butte Valley Division-VI Semifinal Friday, 6 p.m. Mercy Warriors: 6-3, 3-3, fourth in 8-man North (Beat S1 Westwood 40-22 in quarterfi- nals) Butte Valley Bulldogs: 9-1, 5-1, second in 8-man North (Beat S3 Princeton 37-16 in quarterfinals) Directions You’re headed up to the border for this one. Take I-5 to Exit 747 for US-97 toward Central Week/Klamath Falls. Turn right at US-97 N/S Weed Blvd and then take the third right onto US-97 N. Take that for about 50 miles and then continue onto S Butte St. Turn left at West 3rd Street. The school is at 615 West 3rd St. About a 2 hour 40 minute drive. Tickets Adults $7. Students w/ASB card $6. Seniors, K-8 $5. Weather Dress warm. Rain and snow showers expected with a high in the 30s. Courtesy photo from Mark Thau The Mercy Lady Warriors junior varsity volleyball team won the Tri-Cities League title for the second consecutive season.They also shared the title in 2008.With the league expanding to seven schools, this season’s title was tougher to earn,but the Lady Warriors persevered and defeated Maxwell 25-23, 25-21 in their final match to claim the championship. Mercy finished with a 25-10-1 record and was 11-1 in league play. The team was: (from back left) Coach Candi Keller, Mariah Kingwell, Michelle Jaramillo,Kayce Kemp,Morgan Hampton,Gina Rae Garibaldi,Mae Muller,Breana Kemp,Julia Misslin, Maddy Coelho, Francesca Aguilar, Jessica Keane. RB frosh are league champs Previous meeting Butte Valley 66, Mercy 36 The teams met in Red Bluff on Oct. 9. What was a tight game in the first half turned into a blowout in the second half as Mercy had trouble tackling Jeremy Lopez, who rushed for 381 yards and had seven total touchdowns. The Bulldogs also returned two kickoffs for touch- downs as they ran through Mercy’s special teams. On offense, the Warriors were fine. They rushed for 437 yards as a team, with Mitchell Lopez accounting for 216 and Royce Crane picking up 171. Players to watch Butte Valley — Jeremy Lopez (#23) hasn’t just scorched the Warriors this season. He scored five times in the Bulldogs’ playoff game and seven times in their last game of the season. The Warriors will have to contain the multi-talented athlete on all sides of the ball. Mercy —Mitchell Lopez (#2) and Royce Crane (#5) are each averaging 10 yards per carry. The Warriors have their best success when they pound the ball on the ground. They’ll also look to somehow get Jordan Stasinowsky (#88) and Michael Uhadle (#7) touches. Notes: Since winning the 8-man championship in 2006 the Bulldogs have lost in the semifinals three consecutive years....Mercy’s defense allowed 56.5 points per game during their first six games of the season, they’ve allowed just 21 per game during their past two. Today’s volleyball No. 3 Portola at No. 2 Los Molinos Division-V Semifinal Today, 7 p.m. Portola Tigers: 36-6, 8-2, Courtesy photo The Red Bluff Lady Spartans freshmen volleyball team won the Eastern Athletic League championship with a 12-1 record.They were also Pleasant Valley tournament winners.The team was: (from back left) Coach June Borgwat,Claire Samay,Karlee Garcia,Emily Gallager,Sam Jones,Brianna Penner, Calisha Cruise,Coach Kim Wheeler,Kiersten Exum,Jessica Curl,Kellie Rodriquez, Lily Fryer, Tayler Zazueta, Brittany Clatty, Laura Owens, Hannah Woodall and Jessica Shults. McFadden: Raiders not being taken seriously ALAMEDA (AP) — Despite their longest win- ning streak in eight years and a share of the AFC West lead, running back Darren McFadden doesn’t think the Oakland Raiders are being taken seriously. McFadden is the fourth-leading rusher in the NFL and a prime rea- son the Raiders find themselves in the thick of a playoff race for the first time in nearly a decade. At 5-4, the Raiders have as many wins as they’ve had in any season since 2002. Yet the national perception is more pessimistic, which is natural for a franchise that has had an NFL- record seven straight years with 10 or more losses. McFadden hopes a win against Pittsburgh this week will change that. ‘‘It’s always going to be one of those ques- tions,’’ McFadden said Wednesday. ‘‘I feel like people are just expecting us any time to fall back into (playing like) last year’s team, but I don’t think that’s something Mid-Valley—South champions (Beat East Nicolaus in quarterfi- nals) Los Molinos Bulldogs: 34- 7-1, 7-3, second in Mid-Val- ley—North (Beat Etna in quar- terfinals) Tickets Adults $6. Students w/ASB card $5. Seniors, K-8 $4. Previous meetings The teams have met three times this season and all of them were in Los Molinos. The first two came at the Beth Pilger Classic. Los Molinos won the first match on Sept. 17, 25-17, 25-22 behind nine Kiersten Seaman kills. The next day they met again in the tournament’s cham- pionship game and the Tigers rallied back to win 21-25, 25-17, 15-13. On Oct. 19 they met in league play and the Lady Bull- dogs got the upper-hand 25-17, 25-20, 27-25. Callie Carruth had 31 assists in the win and Seaman racked up 20 kills. The Lady Bulldogs rallied from behind in Game 3 as Audrey Gillett came off the bench to give Los Molinos a lift in their service game. MCT photo Oakland Raiders Darren McFadden (20) runs for yardage against the Kansas City Chiefs in the third quarter Nov. 7. we’re going to do. If we can go out there and put up a win against Pitts- burgh we’re going to be able to show people that we are a for real team.’’ Only two of Oakland’s five wins this season have come against teams with winning records, Seattle and Kansas City. The Raiders’ four losses have been against teams strug- gling to stay above .500, like Tennessee and Hous- ton. They’ve also dropped games to Arizona and San Francisco, both of which are 3-6. That could indicate the parity in the NFL in gen- eral. Only three teams — the Jets, Patriots and Fal- cons — have seven wins heading into this week- See RAIDERS, page 2B Players to watch Portola — Lindsey Compton (#11) is the focal point of the team. She leads the Lady Tigers with 4.4 kills per game and is also their leader when it comes to service and digs. She can also pass the ball. The primary setter is Ellie Kib- ble (#22) who averages 5 assists per game. Other offensive options include Suzanne Flippini (#10) and net presence Emma Briggs (15). Los Molinos — The offense runs through setter Callie Carruth (#5), who is also amongst the team’s best servers. Carruth will look to set up Kiersten Seaman (#11), who averages 4.5 kills per game. The Wonder Twins, Nikki (#3) and Jessey (#4) are also offensive weapons. Ashley Havel (#6) and Breanna Gratreaks (#23) provide more options. Briselda Castillo (#1) keys the defense. Notes: For the past two seasons, Portola has knocked Los Molinos out of the playoffs. Then East Nicolaus has knocked out Portola. This year Portola slipped by East Nicolaus in the quarters, setting up Portola-Los Molinos in the semis.