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Tehama Tracker Today's games FOOTBALL NSCIF Division I playoffs Red Bluff Foothill 7 p.m. Follow @TehamaSports on Twitter for live game coverage. NBA Warriors Los Angeles San Antonio Los Angeles 7:30 p.m. CSNB 7 p.m. CSNC On the tube AUTO RACING • 9 a.m. SPEED — NASCAR, Nation- wide Series, practice for Great Clips 200, at Avondale, Ariz. • 11 a.m. SPEED — NASCAR, Sprint Cup, practice for AdvoCare 500, at Avondale, Ariz. • 12:30 p.m. SPEED — NASCAR, Nationwide Series, final practice for Great Clips 200, at Avondale, Ariz. • 1:30 p.m. SPEED — NASCAR, Truck Series, pole qualifying for Lucas Oil 150, at Avondale, Ariz. • 3 p.m. SPEED — NASCAR, Sprint Cup, pole qualifying for AdvoCare 500, at Avondale, Ariz. • 5 p.m. SPEED — NASCAR, Truck Series, Lucas Oil 150, at Avondale, Ariz. BOXING • 7 p.m. SHO — Heavyweights, Dominick Breazeale (0-0-0) vs. Curtis Tate (4-3-0); junior middleweights, Errol Spence Jr. (0-0-0) vs. Jonathan Garcia (3-3-0); and other fights TBA, at Indio, Calif. COLLEGE FOOTBALL • 5 p.m. ESPN2 — Pittsburgh at UConn GOLF • 10 a.m. TGC — PGA Tour, Chil- dren's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic, second round, at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. • 7 p.m. TGC — European PGA Tour, Singapore Open, third round NBA • 7:30 p.m. ESPN — Utah at Denver Rapids 12U Softball Tryouts Tryouts will be held Sunday, Nov. 11 at 3 p.m. at Caldwell Park K2 field in Red- ding. Around town North Valley Sports PREP FOOTBALL | Quarterfinal, Red Bluff visits Foothill at 7 p.m. tonight After hiatus, Spartans find way back to postseason By ANDRE BYIK DN Sports Editor High's football team was in the postseason President George W. Bush had been elected to a second term, Usher's "Confessions" was topping the charts, and Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" was deemed the best picture of the year by the Academy. It was 2004, and the seniors on this year's Spar- tans varsity squad were 9 years old. The last time Red Bluff Red Bluff's Brandon Ragone said, at a young age, he looked up to high school football players as "gods." Girls must be born in 2000 or 2001. To pre-register or for more information, contact Dennis Cahill at 530-515-8859 or teamcahill@hotmail.c om 49ERS always looked up to the var- sity players and just thought they are these ginormous people," said Ragone, the Spartans' 5-foot-11, 185- pound defensive lineman. "And I wanted to be just like them." Now, Red Bluff (6-4, 2-4 Eastern Athletic League) is preparing for a role in the Division I Northern Section playoffs, where the sixth- seeded team will visit the No. 3 seeded Foothill Cougars at 7 p.m. today. The two have met before — last week, actually — with the Cougars (7-3, 4-2 EAL) routing the Spartans 48-7 in what would be a playoff preview. Foothill quarterback Ryan Pollard had a special night from the start, and "When I was a little kid I 1B Friday November 9, 2012 Daily News photo by Andre Byik Red Bluff senior quarterback Garrett Sandow looks downfield for a receiver against Foothill last week. amassed five touchdowns. The Spartans had a let- down, scoring once after upsetting second-seeded Paradise 34-12 the previous week. "We went on a pretty good three-game stretch," said Corey Hein, Red Bluff's first-year varsity coach, during sporadic rain- fall Thursday at a practice. "We blew out (Pleasant Val- ley), we blew out Wheat- land and played really well against Paradise. So maybe we needed to be set back — set straight again." The Spartans have noticed a trend, however. Against teams that predom- inantly run the ball, Red Bluff has fared well, notch- ing wins against Paradise, Corning and Pleasant Val- ley. Against teams that can throw the ball around, such as Enterprise, Chico, Shasta and Foothill, the Spartans have had trouble, Hein said. "Honestly, that's been one of the weak points throughout some of the games," Ragone said. "That's an obvious thing that we've seen. And we've addressed it." The significance of the chilly practice Thursday wasn't lost on the seniors on the squad. On one end, they were preparing to hopefully extend their season one more game. On the other, they knew it could be their last football practice ever. "Obviously we don't WARRIORS Bogut out 7-10 days to rest ankle Andrew Bogut will be sidelined the next seven to 10 days to rest and strengthen his surgically repaired left ankle. OAKLAND (AP) — Golden State Warriors center The announcement Thursday is the kind of setback Bogut and the Warriors were hoping to avoid this sea- son. The 7-footer from Australia was held scoreless while playing 17 minutes in Golden State's 106-96 win against Cleveland on Wednesday night. He had five assists and three rebounds. slowly and showed little lift while playing four of the first five regular-season games. The 2005 No. 1 overall pick fractured his ankle Jan. 25 with Milwaukee and missed the rest of the season after being traded to Gold- en State for guard Monta Ellis, among others. Bogut sat out all of the preseason. He has moved MCT file photo San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith scrambles against the Seahawks this season. Alex Smith has been key to success SANTA CLARA (AP) — When Alex Smith is good he can be very good. When Smith is very good, the San Francisco 49ers are practically unbeatable. While the staples of San Fran- cisco's success this season remain a rock-solid defense and the NFL's top-ranked rushing game, Smith's play at quarter- back has been a key variable that's put the 49ers over the top in a string of lopsided victories. The first-place 49ers, coming off a bye week, begin the second half of the season Sunday against the St. Louis Rams at 6-2 with a 1 1/2-game lead in the NFC West. The six victories have come by an average margin of 20 points, and Smith has a 120.0 quarter- back rating in those games. The eighth-year veteran knows his strong season to this point will ultimately be judged by what he and the 49ers do the remainder of the year. Smith says he's ''not really reflecting'' on a first half that has established him as one of the league's top performers so far. Smith ranks fourth among NFL quarterbacks with a passer rating of 102.1. He's second in the league with a completion per- centage of 69.4. ''You hope you're playing your best football come Novem- ber and December,'' Smith said. ''As you move into the back half of the season, these are huge games, so you hope you're play- ing better and better as the season goes on.'' Smith is playing some of the best football of his career. He has steadily emerged beyond the ''game-manager'' label some tagged him with last season when he guided the 49ers to a 13-3 record and berth in the NFC Championship game in coach Jim Harbaugh's first year with the team. playmaker and is averaging 7.9 yards per pass attempt, which ranks fourth in the NFL. And he enters the second half on a roll, having produced two of the best statistical games of his career in the past month. Smith threw for a season-high 303 yards with a passer rating of 156.3 while leading the 49ers to a franchise-record 621 yards dur- ing a 45-3 blowout of the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 7. He topped that with a career-high 157.1 passer rating in San Francisco's last game, a 24-3 victory at Arizona on Oct. 29. Smith has developed more as a Smith completed 18 of 19 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns against the Cardi- nals, setting an NFL record with a 94.7 completion percentage for a quarterback with a minimum of 15 attempts. He was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for See 49ERS, page 2B KINGS want it to be our last prac- tice," said Garrett Sandow, the Spartans' senior starting quarterback. "But, you gotta put things in perspective. It could be." Red Bluff isn't going into the game without a prayer. On offense, senior two-way star Tucker Gulli- ford leads the EAL in rush- ing yards and touchdowns, with 1,293 and 18, respec- tively. And Sandow has a core See PLAYOFF, page 2B MCT file photo Thomas Robinson is introduced before the season. NBA suspends Robinson The NBA has suspended Sacramento Kings forward Thomas Robinson for two games for elbowing Detroit's Jonas Jerebko in the neck. 2 games for thrown elbow NEW YORK (AP) — son, the fifth overall pick in this year's draft out of Kansas, was immediately ejected. The play occurred with 10 minutes left in Sacramen- to's 105-103 win on Wednesday night. Robin- Robinson will miss the Kings' games against San Antonio on Friday and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sun- day. The league announced the suspension on Thursday.