RED BLUFF — It’s not often that principals and students embrace and shout happily at one another, but Friday night was a special occasion. With a 21-10 victory over the Foothill Cougars, the Red Bluff Spartans secured their first Northern Section championship in 25 years.
The Spartans (10-2), seeded third in Division II, got off to a slow start against a Foothill team (7-4) that beat them 29-26 in Eastern Athletic League play. Red Bluff will play top-seeded Pleasant Valley, to whom the Spartans forfeited an EAL game.
It took a while Friday for Red Bluff to establish its ground game with the rain pouring. Zach Shaver was the driving force behind the running strategy.
The Spartans punted on their first possession. Red Bluff’s defense was able to hold off Foothill’s initial short passes and force a punt. It was like this for the quarter; Neither team could get a strong foothold in their opponent’s territory.
With both teams running a lot, the clock did not stop much, and before anyone knew it, the first quarter ended scoreless.
Foothill had possession of the ball to start the second and continued to pound the forward with a few passes to shake things up. A sack by Red Bluff’s Bryce Owens squashed what progress the Cougars made at that point. An offensive pass interference call went against Foothill soon after, dampening their momentum further.
The Spartans had pass completions to Elijah Hohenberger, Landon Kunau and Brice Clinger. They could not keep this up, though, and their drive ended with a punt.
Finally, Foothill’s game plan bore some fruit. The Cougars marched up the field, but the Spartans stopped them from approaching the end zone. The Cougars’ Evan Hutchings kicked a 35-yard field goal to put Foothill up 3-0.
Multiple runs by Shaver got Red Bluff within striking distance of scoring. When Kayden Leaf’s 35-yard pass came to Hohenberger, he took the ball and ran straight into the end zone. The Spartans were up 7-3, and Foothill decided to run out the clock to halftime.
Neither team was able to establish much at the start of the third quarter. It took a while, but Foothill began finding more success with passes and runs. Penalties that went against the Spartans did not help matters, either. The Cougars scored on a short touchdown run to retake the lead, 10-7. Fortunately for Red Bluff, those were the last points Foothill scored on the night.
The running game, anchored by Cruz Servera and Shaver, countered the Cougars’ score by moving the ball upfield, setting up Leaf to quarterback-sneak his way into a touchdown. Red Bluff was up again, 14-10.
Foothill tried to respond but could not move the ball and was forced to punt. Leaf opened the next drive with a small gain, then found his favorite target Kunau for deep pass play out the 40-yard line, A Shaver run pushed Red Bluff forward into Foothill territory. That set up a short pass play to Owens, who turned it into a touchdown and a 21-10 lead.
After the game, Coach Jacob Daricek joked that the rain was not so bad with a victory.
“It’s awesome for our town, for our community, for all the coaches that they’ve had,” Daricek said. “You know, in the past, they all played a role in this, from the junior Spartans on. Let’s just go on to get PV!”
The Spartans will play top-seeded Pleasant Valley on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Asgard Yard. It will be the Spartans’ first Northern Section championship appearance since they defeated Enterprise 34-2 for the 1999 Division I title.
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