SHASTA COLLEGE EARNS BOWL GAME DESPITE LOSING TO BUTTE 37-20

Photo by Maddie Harrell

BUTTE VALLEY, Calif. – The No. 18 Shasta College football team totaled a season-low 128 yards of offense to lose on the road to No. 12 Butte College 37-20 Saturday to wrap up the regular season 7-3 overall.

Shasta sophomore defensive end Cole Parker intercepted a halfback pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to pull the Knights within two at 16-14. But Butte scored on the next three drives, holding Shasta to only three offensive plays in the final period to win the 13th straight meeting.

"We weren't as physical today as we needed to be on offense," said Shasta College head coach Bryon Hamilton. "The game plan was to take advantage of a couple of things in the passing game but we couldn't protect our QB very well and didn't run enough plays to get anything established."

Shasta (7-3, 2-3 NorCal) went down 9-0 early in the second quarter, giving up a 2-yard Johnny Williams run in the opening period followed by a safety early in the second. After starting the game with five three-and-out drives, the Knights found a spark when quarterback Hokulani Wickard connected over the top to James Lee for a 67-yard touchdown to make it a one score game with 1:02 left in the second quarter. Butte (7-3, 4-1 NorCal) was threatening before half but Joe Merkel intercepted Kyle Lindquist in the end zone to go into the break trailing 9-7.

Wickard was intercepted by Butte's Cliff Jackson on the second play of the third quarter and returned it 27 yards for a pick-6 to lead 16-7. The Knights were pinned on their own 7 to start their next drive and were forced to punt after Wickard was pressured out of bounds on third down.

Butte returned the punt to the Shasta 19 but three plays later Parker stepped in front of the trick play for an 80-yard touchdown to give life to the Knights.

"I saw the ball it was like slow motion in the air," said Parker, who had eight tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble on the day. "I took off and was hoping I wouldn't get caught from behind from their fast running back."

However, Butte stuck to its run game behind McMahon, Williams and Avery McCuaig, the latter of which scored on a 39-yard run to go up 23-14. Shasta backup quarterback Kasey Briggs replaced the injured Wickard and went three-and-out – the only offensive plays of the period for the Knights – and Butte scored on the next two drives, the first on a 2-yard plunge from McMahon and a 13-yard swing pass from Lindquist to Rakim Bellamy.

Shasta finished the scoring with Nick Smith's 93-yard kick return for a touchdown in the final minutes.

Wickard was 8-of-19 passing for 121 yards, passing Ricky Ray's school career records of 343 completions and 588 attempts. Wickard is at 357-of-604 for his career. Lee caught three passes for 75 yards and the score and Jusiah Gabel had four catches for 25 yards. Shasta managed only nine yards rushing on 16 carries.

Merkel tied for the team-lead with Parker and Detrius Kelsall with eight tackles apiece. Kelsall added 2.5 tackles for a loss.

"This team went from 2-8 last year and changed the program to a 7-3 season," Lee said. "We can still finish it out 8-3 so hopefully we can get that done."

STANDINGS
Team NorCal, Overall
American River 5-0, 8-2
Butte 4-1, 7-3
Sierra 3-2, 6-4
Shasta 2-3, 7-3
Feather River 1-4, 1-9
Siskiyous 0-5, 0-10

SHASTA COLLEGE BOWL BOUND

Shasta College accepted a bid to play City College of San Francisco in the Northern California Football Conference's Golden State Bowl Saturday at noon in San Francisco.

It's the fifth bowl game appearance in six years for the Knights, the second time they have achieved this feat since going to five straight from 1954-58.

"We are excited about playing in the Golden State Bowl; being matched up against a historically top program in San Francisco is a great challenge and one our program is looking forward to," said Hamilton. "It's a great reward for a good season. We are proud of where the program is and are extremely excited about the future."

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Shasta College athletics office daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Shasta finished fourth in the NorCal Conference behind ARC, Butte and Sierra College.

San Francisco also finished 7-3, finishing third in the National Bay 6 Conference behind San Mateo and Laney, respectively. To compare schedules, San Francisco went 6-0 against teams Shasta played with notable wins over Butte and Sierra — both losses for the Knights. The Rams lost to San Mateo to close out the regular season.