Huskies rushing attack too much for young Rhinos team

The Sutter Huskies showcased why they are one of the best small high schools in all of Northern California as they defeated the Twelve Bridges Raging Rhinos 42-14 on Friday night. The Huskies were the California Interscholastic Federation Northern Section Champions in 2021, are already 9-0 this season and are scoring an average of 42 points per game. They were led by the running game of seniors Luke Miller and Robbie Faupula, who combined for 363 yards and five touchdowns. Miller had 206 yards and four touchdowns himself. "First off, hats off to them and those kids live, eat and breathe football and the weight room," Rhinos coach Chris Bean said. "I can tell you right now, that is a team that hasn't missed the weight room in four years. For us, it's a group of kids that hasn't even had a full year in the weight room. As terrible as this sounds, this is a great loss because now we know why we need to hit that weight room." Twelve Bridges High started the game strong as junior Jacob Baxley intercepted a Sutter pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown to give the Rhinos an early lead. "It's funny because that exact play we've been working on over and over in practice and we just kept telling him that he can't backpedal and needs to drive down on that out and that's what he did," Bean said. "Baxley is a stud and while there are moments of not paying attention to the details at times, he balls out every single game and means the world to us." The tides began to turn in the favor of the Huskies as Miller scored a 1-yard touchdown after a 49-yard gain by junior Josh Garvin. Sutter High would follow that up with senior Jeffrey Azevedo intercepting a pass on the first play of the Rhinos drive. Miller would once again punch it in for a touchdown, making it 14-7 at the end of the first quarter. Rhinos quarterback Whit Kruse answered right back with a 27-yard touchdown pass to junior Anthony Gallagher to tie the game midway through the second quarter. The Huskies were once again able to make a big rushing play as Faupula ran it 24 yards into the end zone to take a 21-14 lead before halftime. The second half was all Huskies as they forced a turnover on downs, following a dropped pass by the Rhinos, and Miller would make them pay with another rushing touchdown to go up 28-14. Twelve Bridges High was unable to get anything going offensively and were forced to punt and turned it over on downs during their next two offensive possessions. The Rhinos managed to make it inside the 10-yard-line but were unable to close out the drive. Huskies quarterback Jagger Beck had two second-half touchdowns, one passing to Miller and one rushing. The loss drops the Rhinos to 6-2 and second-place in the Pioneer Valley League. They have two games remaining in the regular season against Colfax High next Friday and then away against Marysville on Oct. 28. The Rhinos will be in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI playoffs and will work to the highest possible seed over these final two weeks. "There has to be another light switch that turns on in terms of physicality," Bean said. "Colfax with Coach Stowers and what he has done is going to be a very good game and same with Marysville." Sutter&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;7 Twelve Bridges&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp; 7&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;0 Twelve Bridges - Jacob Baxley 30 interception return (Mason Starbuck kick) Sutter - Luke Miller 1 run (Josiah Thompson kick) Sutter - Miller 6 run (Thompson kick) Twelve Bridges - Anthony Gallagher 27 pass from Whit Kruse (Starbuck kick) Sutter - Robbie Faupula 24 run (Thompson kick) Sutter - Miller 8 run (Thompson kick) Sutter - Miller 10 pass from Jagger Beck (Thompson kick) Sutter - Beck 3 run (Thompson kick)