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Saturday mornings online at redbluffdailynews.com • reprinted in Monday's print edition D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Double Coverage Shasta surge slams Spartans 42 Red Bluf 27f Shasta By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor The visitors gave Red Bluff plenty of ways to beat them, Fri- day night, but the Spartans gave the Shasta Wolves even more in a 42-27 loss. Shasta fumbled on their open- ing offensive play of each half, threw a first quarter interception and lost their starting quarterback for a spell as Red Bluff built up a 14-6 third quarter lead. Then the wheels fell off for Red Bluff. Shasta used a kickoff return, a bizarre 4-yard punt return, a fum- ble return and three Spartan inter- ceptions to avoid not only an upset, but put the game out of contention midway through the fourth quarter. For the second consecutive week Red Bluff outplayed their opponents in the first half, only to end up with a loss. What happened? "We just got beat with the intangibles again, things that are tough to prepare for." coach John Miller said. Shasta had come into the game having returned three kick- offs for touchdowns in their first two contests and the Spartans entered with a plan to minimize the Wolves' return game — by using squib kicks down the side- line. Red Bluff's plan worked fine enough and the Spartans were winning the field position battle in the first half and had the crowd and momentum behind them. The Spartans took a 7-0 lead when Garrett Spangler outleaped a Shasta defender on a fly route and raced to the end zone for a 70-yard touchdown reception from Taylor Figgs. Shasta answered back just before halftime when backup quarterback K.C. Toombs, filling in for Chris Collins who was knocked out by the Spartans' defense, connected with Trevor Short on a 17-yard touchdown pass. Shasta would miss the extra Week 2 Scoreboard Thursday's 8-man result Champion C. 28, Redding Christian 24 Friday's results Orland 30, Corning 6 Shasta 42, Red Bluff 27 Anderson 21, Oroville 12 Central Valley 47, Henley 13 Chester 36, Fall River 6 Chico 26, Las Plumas 6 Durham 40, Clear Lake 10 Enterprise 61, West Valley 14 Foothill 59, River Valley 7 Hamilton 42, Kelseyville 10 Lakeview-Paisley 21, Modoc 7 Live Oak 20, Lindhurst 12 Maxwell 47, Colusa 6 Pleasant Valley 23, Gridley 7 Quincy 56, West Campus 0 Rio Vista 38, Esparto 14 Sutter 14, Eureka 7 Trinity 31, Arcata 20 University Prep 18, Burney 13 Wheatland 29, Marysville 19 Williams 43, Biggs 14 Yreka 45, Mazama 2 Mt. Shasta at Hidden Valley, late Willows at Winters, late Daily News photo by Rich Greene Red Bluff's Ty Smith returns an interception, Friday night, against the Shasta Wolves. point. Shasta fumbled on their first play of the second half when Dereak Webster and Ty Smith broke into the Wolves' backfield and pounced on the ball. It took just two plays before Figgs bought time by breaking out of the pocket and found a wide open Smith in the end zone for a 14-6 Red Bluff lead. Then things got as strange as their mid-afternoon rain burst while it was still sunny in Red Bluff, Friday afternoon. The Spartans' executed anoth- er squib kick, but this time every- thing went wrong. Perhaps, Red Bluff got to the ball too quick and overpursued the play, but Shasta's Ryan Mon- tana scooped up a perfect hop turned upfield and broke 72 yards for a score. Collins returned to the game as the Wolves' went for a 2-point conversion and his athleticsm paid off. On a designed pass, Collins saw no open receivers tucked it and took off running to convert the 2-pointer and tie the game 14-14. Steven Johnson then picked a Figgs' pass to give Shasta the ball and momentum. On the Wolves first play, Avery Holley ripped off a 39- yard run as part of a 118-yard game by the stud Shasta junior tailback. Three plays later Holley caught a middle screen from Collins and took it in from 31 yards out to give Shasta their first lead of the game. Red Bluff responded with another fine play from Smith, who already had an interception, fumble recovery and a touch- down, returned the ensuing kick- off to the Shasta 18-yard line. Wyatt Houghtby caught a bul- let from Figgs to put the on the Shasta 7-yard line and Gage Grabfelder took it in from there to tie the score 21-21. Red Bluff's defense forced a punt, but the Spartans threw their second interception of the game as Danny Salazar picked off a pass. Again the Spartans' would force a punt, but what a punt it was — as the Wolves downed it at the Red Bluff 1-yard line. Deep in their own end, Red Bluff had no success finding any extra real estate and were forced to punt out of their end zone. The Shasta rush forced a mis- kick that skied in the air and came straight down in the wait- ing arms of Salazar who was on the Red Bluff 4-yard line. Salazar took a few steps and just like that had returned a punt for a touch- down — all four yards — and given Shasta the lead back. They wouldn't let go. Midway through the fourth quarter, Red Bluff botched an exchange on a running play and the ball bounced perfectly in Short's hands and he ran untouched 53 yards for a 35-21 Shasta lead. Holley would add a 4-yard rushing touchdown a few min- utes later, then picked off a third Spartans' pass to end any chance of a miraculous comeback. Red Bluff backup quarterback Garrett Sandow came in for the final series. He broke a 19-yard run and connected with Hought- by on a 21-yard touchdown pass to give the Spartans' one final score. Grabfelder led the Spartans' rushing attack with 10 carries for 51 yards. Houghtby had four carries for 33 yards and three receptions for 40 more yards. Figgs finished 8-for-24 for 142 yards. He gained 32 yards on the ground. Cody Case had two catches for 14 yards and Mitch Fox had a 19-yard reception. Tyler Reed had five carries for 21 yards. Outside of containing Holley, the Spartans defense had a solid game. Collins finished the game 5- for-18 passing for 81 yards and the dual threat quarterback was held to 12 yards on the ground. "We flew around very well," Miller said. "We did the job we thought we were going to do and that's contain No. 9 — knock him around a little bit, get him frustrated, which I believe we did." Even if Collins was frustrated during the game, it was the Spar- tans' faithful who once again left the game in that state. For Coach Miller there was no moral victory to be proud of this week and no question who the better team on the field was. "Obviously they were the bet- ter team. They had a 'W.' I mean once we start putting up 'W's I'll tell you we were the better team. It's difficult to take these losses when we're doing the things we should be doing. We're just giv- ing up the little things and los- ing." Daily News photo by Rich Greene Jeff Skaggs pursues Shasta wide receiver Steven Johnson during Friday's game. Up next: the Tehama County Shootout as Red Bluff visits Corning. Cardinals fall flat at Orland Orland 30 Corning 6 DN STAFFREPORT The Corning Cardinals suffered their first loss of the season, Friday, falling 30-6 at Orland. "We were physically handled pretty well," coach John Studer said. Corning fumbled twice and were outperformed in every aspect of the game, Studer said. Orland took the lead at the end of the first quarter when Benito Garcia punched it in from a 1-yard out. The 3-0 Trojans added another score when Austin Schmeltzer con- nected with Jesus Llamas on a 27- yard touchdown pass. Ryan Holland responded for Corning with a 61-yard touchdown scamper to pull the Cardinals to 14- 6. From there Orland's kicker Mauricio Ziranda took over. He started by booting a 21- yarder to close out the first half. Andrew Hutchens gave Orland another touchdown in the third quarter on a 36-yard run. Then Ziranda added 36 and 34- yard field goals to close out the game. said. "They flat out beat us," Studer Next for the Cardinals is the Tehama County Shootout as Corn- ing hosts visiting Red Bluff. H Friday's 8-man results Dunsmuir 60, Greenville 22 Hayfork 64, Princeton 34 Saturday's games Portola at Upper Lake, 2 p.m. Redwood at Paradise, 7 p.m. Saturday's 8-man game Loyalton at Liberty Christian Standings EAL — South Las Plumas Lassen Oroville Paradise 0 - 0 2- 0 0- 2 0 - 0 League 0 - 0 0- 2 0 - 0 0- 2 Red Bluff 0 - 0 0- 2 Northern Athletic League Yreka Overall Overall Anderson Corning C. Valley 0 - 0 2- 0 0 - 0 2- 1 0 - 0 1- 1 West Valley 0 - 0 1- 2 0 - 0 1- 1 8-Man North League Hayfork Overall Dunsmuir 0 - 0 1- 0 0 - 0 2- 0 Big Valley 0 - 0 0- 0 Butte Valley 0 - 0 0- 0 Happy Camp 0 - 0 0- 0 0 - 0 0- 0 Redding C. 0 - 0 0- 2 0 - 0 0- 1 Liberty C. Mercy Week 3 Schedule All games 7:30 p.m. except where noted Friday's games Red Bluff at Corning Biggs at East Nicolaus Central Valley at Oroville Chester at Burney Enterprise at Antelope Etna at Bonanza, 7 p.m. Foothill at Lassen Hamilton at Durham Kelseyville at Esparto Las Plumas at Anderson Lincoln at Wheatland Live Oak at Gridley McKinleyville at West Valley Modoc at Trinity Paradise at Pleasant Valley Quincy at Fall River Shasta at Eureka Stone Ridge Christian at Portola Sutter at Marysville Weed at Mt. Shasta Williams at Pierce Willows at Orland Winters at Dixon Yreka at Henley, 7 p.m. Friday's 8-man games Big Valley at Greenville, 7 p.m. Liberty Christian at Westwood, 7 p.m. Potter Valley at Elk Creek, 6 p.m. Princeton at Butte Valley, 6 p.m. Pyramid Lake at Happy Camp, 6 p.m. Saturday's games Nevada Union at Chico Saturday's 8-man game Champion Christian at Dunsmuir, 5 p.m.