The Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs football squad took the field the evening of Oct. 4 with five and zero in their sights and a College of the Sequoias team standing in their way.
The Bear Cubs kept the visitors off the scoreboard through 55 minutes. With just over four minutes remaining COS booted in a lone field goal making the final score 28-3.
COS opened the game with an unglorious kickoff bouncing out of bounds at the Bear Cub 35-yard line. With a beautiful pass from Christian McAlvain to Damen Jones, the Bear Cubs had a quick 30-yard gain and were set up on the 3-yard line first-and-goal.
The Bear Cubs stalled out and McAlvain was almost intercepted in the end zone on third down. On fourth, opting for a field goal, the Bear Cubs had a bad snap, missing their first scoring chance with a turnover on downs and change of possession, leaving COS with excellent field position.
Riddled with penalties, three-and-outs by both squads, it was a race to see who’s sputtering engine would fire on all cylinders and run in the first half until the Bear Cubs, with McAlvain driving, strung together a drive of 80-yards in just over five minutes.
The first half ended with the Bear Cubs up 7-0 thanks to a quick over the top 8-yard pass to Terrence Drew for the first score of the day.
The Bear Cubs’ defense was a stingy group throughout the evening, sacking both COS quarterbacks early and often, punching through COS’s offensive line to stop their ball carriers for losses in the backfield and making some textbook open field tackles on the occasion a ball carrier actually made it past the line of scrimmage.
With conference play just around the corner, the Bear Cubs’ level of difficulty is going to increase exponentially.
“It kind of feels like we got into a fight, and now the big brother is coming ‘cause the teams in our conference are going to be a lot better than teams we have played in the first five. We’ve got to improve on a lot of things real fast,” said head coach Lenny Wagner.
Next week the Bear Cubs have a bye, but the following two weeks are away games. First the Bear Cubs play College of San Mateo and the following week take the field against San Francisco City College who before this Oct. 4’s games were ranked 4 and 13 respectively in the nation. The Bear Cubs will not have an easy time at either school, but are completely within the realm of possibility to come out ahead.
The Bear Cubs next home game is 5:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Bailey Field.