Northern Section Division II Playoffs: Shasta football team bests Enterprise in round one
The Shasta football team needed a final defensive stand against Enterprise to close out a 17-12 win on Thursday at home in the opening round of the Northern Section Division II playoffs.
The Wolves (8-3) travel to No. 2 Pleasant Valley (7-3) next week in a rematch of an Oct. 20 Eastern Athletic League the Vikings won 10-0 at Thompson Field.
But before Shasta could earn a trip to Asgard Yard it had to do something it’d never done in the River Bowl era — win a playoff game against its rival. The lone postseason meeting of the schools after 1993 went to the Hornets in 2004 after the Wolves won the regular-season meeting.
On Thursday, however, history wouldn’t repeat. Here are three keys to the Shasta victory.
Offense gets headline, defense wins titles
Except for games against Chico and Orland, the Shasta defense has been particularly stout this season behind coordinator Jim Schuette. The Wolves have allowed just over 21 points per game, a stat that’s allowed them to hang tight in close games.
On Thursday, the defense came up with arguably the biggest play of the night on a gutsy call by Enterprise coach Chris Combs.
Trailing 10-6 more than midway through the third quarter, Enterprise elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 just inside their own 20. Hornets quarterback JJ Johnson ran a designed keeper to the right but was stopped by outside linebacker Shakespeare Taylor and a gang of Wolves.
“The kids, it’s our MO, we battle all the time,” Shasta coach Aaron Richards said. “Our defense played really well tonight. They tried to take some chances and we pounced on it.
“Momentum in high school football is everything."
Combs said after the loss that he liked the play call and decision, but that it was one of a few momentum plays in the game.
“Hindsight, looking back, maybe we should’ve punted, but I felt like we had a good play call,” he said. “The kids were motivated in the timeout. They believed. I asked them ‘Do you think we can get this?’ and they were all in agreement. So I’m going to back the kids when they say they think they can get it. Just missed a little assignment and it cost us. That (decision) is on me, I could’ve made a different decision and maybe that changes the outcome of the game.”
Ryder May and Owen Boesiger shoulder the load
Coming into Thursday’s playoff game, Shasta junior quarterback Justin Polley had compiled nearly 1,900 yards passing and running with 22 combined touchdowns.
On the Wolves’ second possession, the dual-threat QB tweaked an ankle and put the offensive load on senior fullback May and junior wing Boesiger.
More:Previews for Shasta vs. Enterprise, two other Redding area high school football games
May did much of the dirty work between the tackles in Shasta’s Wing-T scheme while Boesiger ran for one score and caught a short TD pass from Polley in the second quarter.
Boesiger’s third-quarter, 25-yard TD run was the result of the short field from the Enterprise decision to go for it on fourth pinned back deep. The speedy junior took a sweep right and outraced the defense from 5 yards out, diving for the pylon and a 17-6 Shasta lead toward the end of the third quarter.
I’m super proud of our offensive line,” Richard said. “We’ve been doing some great things moving the ball with (offensive linemen) Grant (Anderson), Manny (Limon), Carter (Hurn) and the rest of those guys. They’re doing a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage.
“Justin got a little dinged, but he gutted it out.”
A few final momentum swings
Up 17-12 after Johnson pulled Enterprise within a score with a 13-yard TD run to start the fourth quarter, the Wolves looked like they had the kill shot a few possessions later.
Shasta wing Joe Beasley took a sweep, cut up field and found green grass in front of him. Racing toward the end zone, Johnson tracked him down and punched the ball from the junior runner’s hands right before he crossed the goal line.
Enterprise took over on the 1 after what certainly was a game-saving turnover.
“He had a play similar to that a few weeks back where he chased someone down from behind and popped it out and that’s just that competitive nature in him if the kid hasn’t crossed the line so I’m going to track it down,” Combs said. “It was a huge momentum play because it kept us in the game.”
The Hornets weren’t able to capitalize and the Wolves had another drive stall in the red zone leading to a final, last-gasp effort by Enterprise with time running out. They picked up a fourth down but it was negated by a penalty near their own 30, forcing them into obvious passing situations with no timeouts left.
After missing on a few throws, Johnson was intercepted by Jackson Esterby on a play that started with 9.1 seconds left on the clock, icing the win.
“The junior class has always been the cardiac kids and now they’re rubbing off on the senior class,” Richards said. “They want to play four quarters and we do that around here.”
More:Northern Section Division III Volleyball Finals: West Valley volleyball sweeps Orland
Foothill 17, Red Bluff 14
The fourth-seeded Cougars scored 10 points in the second half to put away a determined Red Bluff team.
The Spartans scored first on a Chaco Chavez run to take the early 7-0 lead.
Foothill got on the board on a 24-yard TD Chris Hall run on fourth down to knot the score at seven, but trailed at half after a 40-yard pick 6 by the Spartans' Lucas Owens.
"We've been coming out flat, but we told them at half just to stay the course," Foothill coach Ross Griffith said. "We made a few adjustments and it was like a whole new ballclub."
After a field goal brought the Cougars within four at 14-10, they got the difference-maker on a 13-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.
Foothill travels to No. 1 Chico on Friday for semifinal action against the 9-1 Panthers.
Aaron Williams has covered North State sports for more than 20 years in print and on the radio. He works at MaxPreps as the national volleyball and girls basketball editor while also writing about football nationally.