VISALIA, Calif. – Shasta College's football team couldn't recover from a 21-0 deficit in the opening quarter and fell 51-14 on the road to No. 13 College of the Sequoias Saturday.
The Knights (2-2) had only run six plays before staking the Giants to a three-score lead and never got in a rhythm offensively.
"COS is a good team and we made too many mistakes early and put ourselves in a deep hole," Shasta College head coach Bryon Hamilton said.
Sequoias got the scoring starting with a 72-yard punt return by the Giants' David Alcantar. After a three-and-out, Sequoias marched on a 14-play, 81-yard scoring drive capped by a 26-yard DeWayne Coleman touchdown catch that took 7:27 off the clock. The Knights fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving the Giants a short field and Nathan Lamb connected on a 21-yard touchdown pass to Tae Marks six plays later for a quick 21-0 advantage.
The Giants capitalized on a blocked punt late in the second period with AJ Dixson finding pay dirt from 3-yards out to go up 27-0 at the break.
"To win on the road versus ranked teams you have to play clean and execute; we didn't do that," Hamilton said.
Sequoias padded its lead with a 24-yard field goal, a 1-yard touchdown run from Aidan Galvan and Dorrian Felix returned a Gabe Curtis interception back for a touchdown to go ahead 44-0.
The Knights didn't get past midfield until the fourth quarter when Eli Cortinas rushed for 11 yards on first down. Shasta finished the drive in the end zone with Gavin Dobson completing a 5-yard touchdown pass to Holden Gilbert.
Sequoias answered with a three-play scoring drive with Galvin scoring on a 9-yard run, which was set up by a 64-yard run from John Friend.
Shasta responded with Tyler Carey hauling in a 32-yard touchdown toss from Caiden Wehbey with 2:21 remaining.
The Knights were 3 of 12 on third down and managed a season-low 206 yards of offense on 49 plays, rotating three quarterbacks in the game. Wehbey completed all three of his passes for 71 yards and a score while Curtis was 5 of 15 passing for 40 yards and an interception while Dobson was 4 of 6 with 35 yards and a score.
Cortinas was the Knights' leading rusher with 29 yards on four attempts and Curtis ran the ball nine times for 22 yards. Shasta ran the ball 25 times for 60 yards.
Carey finished with 75 yards receiving while Gilbert had two catches for 13 yards and a score.
Anthony Slayton was the leading tackler for Shasta with 11 tackles, including 2.5 tackles for a loss. C.J. Williams had seven tackles and 1.5 tackles for a loss while Bladen Stankey had six tackles and Aiden Allsop had five stops. Noah Benson intercepted a pass for his team-leading third interception of the season.
Shasta wraps up non-conference play Saturday at Sacramento City College at 1 p.m.
"We need to clean up the mistakes and play a consistent and clean game," Hamilton said. "This is a very important game as we go into the bye week and get ready for conference play."
GAME NOTES
Tyler Carey has scored a touchdown in every game this season and leads the Knights with five touchdowns … Carey's four receiving touchdowns is tied for fourth in the state … Carey has nine receiving TDs for his career, which is tied for 11th in school history … Sequoias is 3-2 all-time against Shasta and the 51 points was the most allowed to the Giants in those meetings … Shasta hasn't allowed 51 points since beating College of the Siskiyous 52-51 to win the Spring 2021 NorCal championship (COVID year).
Photo Credit: Mike Daly