Colfax plays one good quarter more than Bear River

Colfax-Bear River Football, by Andy Wilcox, Journal Sports EditorLAKE OF THE PINES ? Colfax played as close to a perfect offensive game as it may get all year Friday night, mostly having its way with Bear River?s highly touted, though injury-ridden, defense.The Falcons rolled to a 35-23 nonleague win, building a 35-7 lead midway through the third quarter then withstanding a dominant Bruin fourth-quarter comeback surge.Led by Jordan Zapper?s 10-of-12 passing for 133 yards and Josh Huber?s 114 yards on 22 carries, Colfax (3-0) avenged last season?s only regular-season loss, while evening the nonleague series with its closest neighbor at 2-2.Bear River?s Matt Logue (28 carries, 125 yards, two TDs) almost single-handedly put his team on the board first, breaking runs of 38, 12, two and finally eight yards during a six-play, 66-yard scoring drive. His own extra point just 2:07 into the game made it 7-0.?We had some jitters at first because it was such a big game for us,? said Colfax junior linebacker Brad Collier, who had many key stops.?But we knew all of their plays and formations, and we had a good week of practice. The Falcons struck right back by scoring on three of their first four possessions. Three short scoring runs by Huber and the first of Wyatt Covich?s five PATs gave Colfax a 21-7 halftime lead.?We stepped it up after they scored first,? said Zapper.?We?re not used to being behind and it gave us motivation. We started exploiting their weaknesses. We hadn?t beaten them (since 1998). Our seniors wanted this win badly.?After each team punted to open the second half, Zapper delivered a crushing blow with a perfectly timed touchdown pass to Bryan Hamm, who was running a slant pattern on only the fourth play of the possession.?I read the safety, saw him come up on the tight end, and Bryan was open,? Zapper said.As if that wasn?t enough, against a Bruin squad that had overcome a 14-0 first-quarter deficit the week before to beat Natomas 20-14, Colfax got the ball back four plays later and scored again in just five plays, as Nick Paskey took his first carry of the game up the gut, broke a few tackles and pulled away for a 42-yard scoring run. Zapper praised the blocking of linemen Austin Bollinger, Stephen Ensley, Roger Avalos, Troy Therien, Jonathan Cook and David Cody, who he hit with an 18-yard pass to spark the first scoring drive.?There wasn?t much pressure on me tonight,? Zapper said.Bear River, however, showed what kind of character it has this year ? and may need in this year?s balanced Sierra Foothill League ? as it stubbornly kept its chances alive until the waning moments. Junior quarterback Keith Roberts, who had struggled to complete a pass in the first two games, found Joe Scarbrough for 30 yards at the Colfax 18-yard line to key a 90-yard, 11-play drive.A 13-yard rumble to the 2 by JonLuc Reshatoff set up his own scoring run three plays later that pulled his team to within 35-14 on the first play of the fourth quarter.Until his 30-yard completion, which Scarbrough alertly stopped and came back to grab, Roberts had overthrown most of his passes.?The ball was really wet, although I shouldn?t make excuses,? Roberts said. ?I was just putting too much on it.?After Lance Travis made a big tackle for a loss on third down forced Colfax 1-2-3-and-out, another Roberts-Scarbrough hookup, this time on a bootleg pass play that went for 43 yards to the Falcons? 9, set up a short Logue touchdown run that made it 35-21 with 6:51 left.Roberts, who scrambled for a season-high 58 yards in five totes, said he needed to do more to keep the drives alive.?It was a will to win,? he said. ?I wanted to keep our drives going and give my team a chance to win and get the defense away from Matt and Jon. Joey?s a senior, and he told me I just needed to take my time, that he?d run the patterns and I just need to get the ball to him.? Added Reshatoff, ?We were tired the whole second half, but we have pride and couldn?t just let down and say the game was over because we play in the toughest league in the area.?Again the Colfax offense couldn?t get a first down, thanks a big stop by Logue on third down. Bear River took over at its own 10 with 5:45 left. After Logue bulled ahead one foot to convert on fourth down, Roberts ran for 14 yards for another first down, then hit Scarbrough with an 11-yard pass. Roberts scampered again to the 25, before Colfax finally forced three incompletions, stopped Roberts on fourth down, and took over with 1:43 left. On the last play of the game, Zapper ran out the back of the end zone for a safety.Along with Collier, noseguard Dana Hinds and strong safety Brandon Merritt were solid all night for the Falcons? defense.Bear River, which was down to 26 players ? most of whom played on both sides of the ball ? due to concussions and other injuries, seemed to be tapping its very last reserves in the fourth quarter.Meanwhile, Colfax?s 60-plus players, none of them playing both offense and defense, seemed energetic throughout, though a little stunned in the fourth quarter. To their credit, they could stay on top of the game despite periods of inactivity.?It keeps us fresh,? Zapper said. ?Logue and those other Bear River guys were tired as hell toward the end.?Logue agreed.?All that platooning they do, they don?t wear out,? he saidOne of the few Bruins who didn?t play both ways, Reshatoff, said his team as stunned by Colfax?s first-quarter response as the Falcons seemed shocked by Bear River?s strong finish.?We were still looking at the touchdown we?d just scored instead of getting even more pumped up,? said Reshatoff, who was held to 50 yards in 15 carries. ?I think they eased up on us at the end, too.?Bear River learned about its heart, and also that it can, in fact, balance its running game, which may be the key to SFL survival.?This was a good game and a real confidence builder coming into league,? Logue said. ?We got a couple of nice passes. We need to work on our defense more. We were missing one of our starting linebackers (Kelly O?Grady), but we didn?t tackle well.?While Colfax prepares for a homecoming game against Golden Empire League-West team Dixon, Bear River will be facing a newly confident Placer squad coming off its first win, 21-19 over Center. Then again, Bear River got a little more confident itself, despite the loss.?It was nice to see our passing game come around,? Bruins head coach Terry Logue said. ?It was good to see Keith make some good decisions. But we?ll have to go back to the drawing board on defense. They ran the ball on us too well.?Colfax714140?35Bear River70016?23BR?Matt Logue 8 run (Logue kick)C?Josh Huber 1 run (Wyatt Covich kick)C?Huber 10 run (Covich kick)C?Huber 2 run (Covich kick)C?Bryan Hamm 45 pass from Jordan Zapper (Covich kick)C?Nick Paskey 42 run (Covich kick)BR?JonLuc Reshatoff 1 run (Logue kick)BR?Logue 1 run (Logue kick)BR?Safety (Zapper runs out back of end zone)BRCTotal Yards344329First Downs1214Rushes-Yards41-21148-233Passing Yards13396Com-Att-Int10-12-04-13-0Fumbles-lost1-00-0Penalties-yards5-290-0INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING ? Colfax: Huber 22-114, Paskey 2-41, Matt Christopher 8-31, Zapper 9-25. Bear River: Logue 28-125, Keith Roberts 5-58, Reshatoff 15-50.PASSING ? Colfax: Zapper 10-12-0-133. Bear River: Roberts 4-13-0-96.RECEIVING ? Colfax: Hamm 5-85, David Cody 1-18, Adam Stocks, Huber 4-30. Bear River: Joe Scarbrough 3-93, Logue 1-3.