The Santa Rosa Junior College football team committed costly mistakes in their conference opener and homecoming game, losing 49-14 against CCCAA No. 2 Butte College Friday night at Bailey Field.
The Bear Cubs (2-4 overall, 0-1 National-NorCal Conference) turned the ball over three times and gave up a lot of yardage on special teams, allowing the Roadrunners (6-0, 1-0) to start five of their 13 drives in SRJC territory. Butte’s great field position throughout the game propelled the Roadrunners to score 49 points on less than 300 yards of total offense.
“We played terribly on special teams,” SRJC head coach Lenny Wagner said. “The final result was them having great field position the whole game. When you spot a team like Butte all of that field position and turnovers; you wouldn’t beat an average team doing that. So when you do it against a good team it’s a double whammy.”
Butte started quickly with a 69-yard kickoff return by sophomore defensive back Zach Valcarcel to begin the game. The return set the Roadrunners up with first and goal at the Bear Cubs eight-yard line. Butte’s third play of the game produced a touchdown on a scramble by sophomore quarterback Marcus Beamon.
After a 42-yard punt return by Valcarcel, the Roadrunners started their second drive on the SRJC 28-yard line later scoring on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Beamon. Butte led 14-0 six minutes into the game.
SRJC climbed back into the contest late in the second quarter on a 58-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Dominic Feliciano to freshman wide receiver Jovon Scott. At halftime Butte led 33-14.
Butte picked up where they left off to start the second half, quickly putting up two touchdowns and a safety. With just over nine minutes left in the third quarter the Roadrunners led 49-14.
Feliciano completed 18 of 34 passing attempts for 256 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He started in place of injured sophomore Chase Vehmeyer.
“[Feliciano] was dealing with a really good defense,” Wagner said. “He hasn’t gotten a ton of game reps this year and I give him a lot of credit for stepping in there. He’s always going to give you his best and that’s all you can ask him to do.”
The Bear Cubs struggled to get their ground game going for the second straight week. Freshman running back Zion Williams led the team with 28 rushing yards on nine attempts and one touchdown.
Freshman wide receiver Darien Maragh led SRJC in receiving yards and receptions with 83 yards on five catches.
Bear Cubs freshman safety Silas Pologeorgis led the way on defense with eight total tackles. Sophomore linebacker Diego Davis and freshman safety Dante Antonini each recorded seven tackles while freshman cornerback Kyren Jackson snagged an interception in the closing minutes of the second quarter.
“There were some things on defense that were better than we did all year,” Wagner said. “Our understanding of schemes and slowing the game down were some real positives for our young guys.”
Homecoming festivities included a halftime show by the Bear Cubs’ cheerleaders and a speech by SRJC Vice President of Marketing Emily Marian that acknowledged October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Bear Cubs go on the road next Saturday to play conference foe Sierra College (3-3, 1-0).
