Slaw start dooms Grizzlies in loss to Pirates

Granite Bay's varsity football team played well Friday night and ending up losing by only six points to a very good Pittsburg team, 42-36. A slow start was the difference in the game, as the Grizzlies fell behind 21-0 early in the second quarter and could never make it the whole way back to the lead. "We got down, partly on a couple big plays and some things, but we battled," Granite Bay coach Joe Cattolico said. "I've coached some good teams and I've coached against good teams and they've got a lot of guys. If you make a mistake, they could make it a long mistake. "We never got closer than six points. We got it within one score twice. We needed one more stop and we couldn't quite get it. "The kids played hard against good opponent. It's a long road trip working against you, but it was a good experience for us to go down there and play in a neat environment." Isaiah Ene scored Granite Bay's first touchdown, as the Grizzlies trailed 28-7 at halftime. In the third quarter, Granite Bay quarterback Dominic Cattolico threw a touchdown pass to Darnell Turner Jr. to cut the lead deficit to 28-14. The Pirates scored a touchdown with about five minutes to go which put them in front, 35-14, and for all intents and purposes probably thought they put the game out of reach at that point. Ene, who rushed for 158 yards on 28 carries, scored his second touchdown run and added a two-point conversion to make the score 35-22. The Grizzlies got the ball back and scored again, this time with Cattolico throwing a touchdown pass to Ene, which brought the Grizzlies to within one score, 35-29, with three minutes to play. Amazingly, both teams scored one more touchdown, as Ene finished with three rushing touchdowns and one receiving. Cattolico completed 18-of-28 passes for 214 yards and two scores, while Turner caught nine passes for 100 yards and Ene caught five passes for 66 yards. Granite Bay played a good game on offense, but they simply took too long to get going. They were balanced, 210 yards passing and 207 yards rushing, and didn't have a turnover all night. "They didn't have a turnover either and we needed to get one," Cattolico said. "There weren't very many penalties. It was a well-played game by both teams. We moved the ball well, but we just couldn't stop them. A couple of times we left some points out on the field. We had close to 80 offensive snaps and normally when you run that many you don't lose." The Grizzlies have another road game next week, but this one will be much closer to home when they visit Vista del Lago in Folsom. Of course, the Grizzlies will make a second trip to Folsom in the final week of the regular season when they face the Folsom Bulldogs. "I haven't sat down and watched the film yet;" Cattolico said Saturday morning, "But Vista is good every year and is well coached. They've got good players and we will have our work cut out for us, but we're looking forward to the challenge."