Prep football: Sutter routs Chico; Marysville improves to 2-0

Aug. 27—The Sutter Union High football team christened its field and 2022 home crowd with another win over long-time Northern Section rival Chico Friday night at Wayne Gadberry Field.

The Huskies are winners over Chico for the third time in the last four matchups, capped by Friday's 34-14 win to move Sutter to 2-0 on the season.

Chico, the defending NSCIF Division II champions, fell to 0-1, and returns home next week to tackle River Valley of Yuba City.

For Chico coach Jason Alvistur, Friday's season-opener was about getting his young team some game experience.

Chico played the part of a young team in the opening half against Sutter, a first-year member of the Sac-Joaquin Section, but long-time NSCIF small school power.

The Panthers committed three costly penalties in the first quarter for 20 yards and then turned it over in the second — the first of their three fumbles — to help Sutter extend its lead to 13-0 in the second.

"Our inexperience showed tonight, in the first half we had penalties getting lined up right, illegal motions and we turned the ball over a couple times," Alvistur said.

The fumble in the second quarter came as a result of Sutter junior defensive end Asiata Auckland putting a hit on Chico junior quarterback Azari Cruz at around the Panther 25, forcing the ball to come loose and into the hands of senior linebacker Joey Bicknell for a Sutter scoop-and score to give the Huskies the early double-digit lead.

"You make a mistake against (Sutter) and they are going to capitalize," Alvistur said. "They are well-coached and we knew if we had a chance to win we would have to play a pretty perfect game."

Chico began to show glimpses of who it was last year early in the third quarter when it came out defensively with a solid three-and-out , helped by a six-yard tackle for loss from junior defensive tackle Fabian Ibarra.

That would lead to Chico's first touchdown, a 40-yard wide receiver screen from Cruz to sophomore Jaden Neugebauer, to trim the deficit to 13-7 about the 8 minute, 15-second mark of the third.

But the mistakes continued to rear their ugly head when Chico turned it over again deep in its own territory on another fumble. The next play, Sutter first-year signal-caller Luke Miller found Landon Sable on a 21-yard pass play to push the lead to 20-7 with 5 minutes left.

Sutter's aerial attack began to heat up at that point as Miller helped close the third quarter with a couple pristine finds to tight end Trenton Duchene to put Sutter near the goal line to open the fourth.

On the opening play of the final quarter, junior Joshua Gregor pounded in from three yards out to give Sutter a commanding 27-7 lead at the 11:51 mark.

After another fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Chico eventually put another solid drive together, punctuated by a second successful receiver screen from 18 yards to tight end Adon Newberry, cutting the deficit to 27-14.

"Like I told the guys, I'm proud of their effort," Alvistur said. "I wanted to see them battle and they did. We played hard the whole game and stayed together."

For Sutter coach Ryan Reynolds, Friday's win marked a solid start to a season that is likely to bring some uncertainty with the upcoming new league and Sac-Joaquin Section schedule.

He's glad that his team jumped out to a strong start.

"It is always nice to come out like that, real proud of our defense," Reynolds said. "Our D-line is real special, they are all juniors. Tristan Leal had a big game last week and Auckland had a big game this week. The whole corps, linebacker unit, secondary, they play as a group and do a real good job."

Sutter hits the road next week to take on Arcata at Humboldt State University Sept. 3 beginning at 7 p.m.

Marysville 48, Rio Americano 27

The Indians went to 2-0 with a double-digit road win at Rio Americano on Friday.

QB Kayden Ellyson scored twice on each side of the ball and found Trishton Henderson on a 16-yard pass play to guide Marysville to the 2-0 start under first-year head coach and alumnus Will Claggett.

Marysville's Joseph Endicott scored twice on the ground in the third quarter, while Danny Lanini returned an interception 47 yards to help it away.

Marysville hosts East Nicolaus next Friday at 7 p.m.

Colusa 52, Anderson 14

Colusa quarterback Bo Coronado passed for 215 yards and three scores to lead Colusa to the rout over Anderson on the road Friday.

On the ground, Hayden Mccarty compiled 175 yards and three touchdowns to lead the RedHawk ground game.

Landon Humphrey, Isaiah Travis and Nico Mata each caught scoring tosses from Coronado.

Orland 21, Pierce 13

Pierce dropped its opener Friday at Orland after allowing 21 unanswered points to the Trojans.

The Bears opened up with a 13-0 lead courtesy in part to over 200 yards rushing and two scores from Manuel Lopez.

Defensively, Joseph Saavedra led the way with 11 tackles for Pierce, which hosts Clear Lake next week.

Other area scores

Lincoln 28, Yuba City 27

River City 20, River Valley 12