PARADISE – The Paradise High School varsity football team, after an unwanted week off, got busy visiting the Pierce High School Bears on Friday night 42-7 at Om Wraith Field.
The Bears entered the action on Friday night undefeated in the Sacramento Valley league game.
After the Bobcats (5-1, 3-0 in the league) forced the visitors to punt after their first possession, quarterback Braden Gonzalez scored on a 37-yard touchdown run to give Paradise a lead 7-0, following Aiden Luna’s extra. point.
Then, on the opening play of the second quarter, Gonzales hit Kyle Ricker on a 32-yard touchdown pass that took the Bobcats’ lead to 14-0 after Luna’s extra point.
And just before the end of the second quarter, Daquan Lamar-Simmons scored on a 3-yard run to give Paradise the 21-0 lead before halftime.
That’s where the score stayed until the end of the third quarter when Nathan Magpusao recovered a fumble from Bear and sent him back 50 yards for a score and a 28-0 lead.
The Bobcats were able to push the lead to 35-0 to open the fourth quarter on a 4-yard rush from Gonzales. That touchdown run was set up by a big run from Lamar-Simmons that put the Bobcats at Pierce’s 4-yard line.
A Bears fumble at their own 19-yard line set up Brady Bettencourt’s 4-yard touchdown run with less than four minutes.
This gave Paradise a 42-0 lead and for the last four minutes the game was played against the clock.
The Bears scored with less than a minute to go and avoided the shutout.
With the loss, the Bears fell to 5-3 on aggregate and suffered their first league and loss of the year in Sacramento Valley and fell to 3-1.
The Bobcats will now focus on Winters where they will travel to play the Warriors.
The Bears host Durham next Friday night.
