Mid-valley roundup: East Nicolaus wins league over Colusa, earns No. 1 seed in playoffs
Nov. 9—Behind another strong ground game attack, the East Nicolaus High football team completed the finishing touches on a Sacramento Valley League regular season championship with a 43-14 win over runner-up Colusa.
East Nic quarterback Ty Grigsby pounded in for three touchdowns as East Nicolaus built a 22-0 first-quarter lead. Grigsby passed for 121 yards and a touchdown to Dalton Novak.
East Nicolaus finished out the regular season 9-1 overall and 5-0 in SVL play. The Spartans earned the top-seed in the Northern Section Division IV playoffs, and will host the winner of Pierce and Hamilton at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 in the D-IV semifinals. East Nic last won a title in 2019 — the completion of a quintet of championships.
Colusa (8-2, 3-2) earned the No. 2 seed in D-IV and hosts the winner of Durham and Willows next week.
Tickets to the NSCIF playoffs can be purchased by visiting https://bit.ly/3tg6bnO.
SJS football playoffs
Yuba City, fresh off an upset 48-6 win over Vista del Lago as the No. 11 seed, advanced to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III quarterfinals to take on the third-seeded Grant Pacers Friday at 7 p.m. in Sacramento at Grant Union High School.
YC (5-6), seeded No. 11, last faced Grant (7-2) in 2013 when it won 28-12. The Honkers are 1-2 against Grant in the MaxPreps era.
Marysville, seeded fourth, and top-seeded Sutter Union, each host an SJS first-round games in D-VI and D-V, respectively, this week.
Marysville (7-3) welcomes in No. 5 Bradshaw Christian (8-2) for a 7 p.m. showdown, while Sutter (10-0) hosts No. 8 Ripon (5-6) Friday at 7 p.m.
Tickets can only be purchased online by visiting https://gofan.co and searching for your school.
Prep volleyball
The Spartans went back-to-back in NSCIF D-V with a four-set (25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 25-18) win over top-seeded Trinity (29-9), of Weaverville.
East Nicolaus (23-4), winners of 16 straight matches, received 31 kills from sophomore Jadyn Hoffman and 36 assists off the hands of sophomore Addy Tagala. Tagala also provided 14 digs in the final last weekend at Foothill High School in Palo Cedro.
Meika Lauppe collected six solo blocks and four kills for East Nicolaus.
East Nicolaus and Sutter both opened the CIF state playoffs at home late Tuesday. For results see Thursday's Appeal.
Sporting Clays
Sutter Union High's Shotgun varsity team took first in the series shoots and second in the state championship over the weekend in Zamora.
Sutter's top varsity shooter, Jaxon Smith, shot the second highest score in the shoot with a 95, finishing third overall following the shootoff.
Sutter's Max Martinez tied for fifth, while Logan Smith earned third in the Young Adult Division.
The varsity team consisted of Jaxon Smith, Jack Munger, Nick Moody, Mat Alloway, James Cooley, Cloey Carrier, Charles Roberts, Tyler Siller, James Campbell, Taylor Bogle, Nate Jones, Camille Olenski, Gavin Triplett, Gavin Crawford and Logan Smith.
Air Rifle
Lafayette Gun Club defeated Sutter, 2447.4 to 2403.3 last week in the National Air Rifle League.
Sutter's Marissa Fedora shot a season-high 614.3.
Prep cross country
River Valley advanced a school-record 21 cross country runners to the Sac-Joaquin D-II Section Championships next week.
The RV varsity girls took sixth overall at the SJS subsection meet in Calaveras County.
In varsity boys, RV's Eddie Jensen placed 15th in a three-mile mark of 16 minutes, 22 seconds to reach the SJS championships Nov. 12 at Willow Hills Reservoir Course.
To reach state, Jensen must finish next week top 14 overall and top-5 individually among runners that did not qualify as a team, according to RV's coaching staff.
Local spotlight
Marysville High senior softball star Jenissa Conway will sign her National Letter of Intent to the University of Michigan, out of the Big 10 conference, at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in the south auditorium at Marysville High School.
Conway verbally committed to Michigan her junior year.
MHS will be hosting a signing ceremony for friends and family the day of the event, according to Athletic Director Bill Rollins.
Editor's Note: Cutoff time for score submissions is 5 p.m. each night. To report scores, please send information to jlarson@appealdemocrat.com. Submissions on Friday may be held until next week.
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Meika Lauppe contributed to this report.
