ROCKLIN, Calif. – The Shasta College football team lost to No. 5 Sierra College 49-13 on the road Saturday for its fourth straight loss.
Sierra was in control from the start, jumping out to a 21-0 lead, scoring on the ground, on a punt return and through the air before half. The Wolverines added a score on the opening drive of the third quarter with a 41-yard touchdown toss from Michael Wortham to D Johnson-Cooper to stake a 28-0 advantage.
"Sierra College has an excellent football team," Shasta College head coach Bryon Hamilton said. "We battle with them and did some good things but we were not able to contain their speed on both sides of the ball. We had some excellent performances but we fell short."
A week after scoring a season-high 48 points in a shootout with American River, Shasta's offense sputtered early. The Knights' first seven possessions resulted in five punts and two interceptions.
Eli Wehbey, making his first start at quarterback this season for the Knights, put Shasta on the board midway through the third quarter with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Cam Williams. The touchdown capped an 8-play, 66-yard drive that was aided by 18 rushing yards from Miles Wilson to cut it to a three-score deficit.
But Sierra responded two plays later with Wortham breaking loose for a 69-yard touchdown run to jump ahead 35-6. Shasta reached Sierra's 34 on the ensuing possession but the 10-play drive stalled on two penalties and a sack.
Wortham padded the Sierra lead in the fourth with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Eli Mirza followed by a 29-yard rushing score. Wortham accounted for all six offensive touchdowns for the Wolverines, three passing scores and 271 yards on 22 of 29 attempts and three scores on the ground with another 120 yards on seven attempts.
Eli Cortinas tacked on a late score for Shasta on a 1-yard run with 4:21 remaining.
Sierra converted 7 of 10 third down conversions and outgained Shasta 484-217 with 213 of those Wolverine yards coming on the ground.
Wehbey completed 14 of 24 passing attempts for 114 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions and was sacked twice. Wilson paced the Knights in rushing with 63 yards on 12 carries and added another 24 receiving yards on a pair of catches. Cortinas rushed a team-high 13 times for 20 yards. Williams caught a season-high four passes for 44 yards while Tyler Carey turned in his team-leading five receptions for 41 yards.
On defense, Aiden Allsop's 12 tackles were a game-high and Anthony Slayton and Bladen Stankey each tallied seven tackles. Marcus Pressley had six tackles, Noah Benson had five stops with two pass breakups and Jacob Ross and JaQuay Mills each had a 0.5 sack with Mills recording a forced fumble. Braden Rohde recovered a fumble.
Shasta comes home for back-to-back games against College of the Siskiyous on Saturday at 6 p.m. before hosting Santa Rosa Junior College on sophomore night on Nov. 5.
"We are looking forward to being home Saturday and playing long time rival College of the Siskiyous," Hamilton said.
GAME NOTES
Despite the loss, Shasta still owns the all-time record against Sierra with a record of 23-20, though the Knights have lost eight straight in the series … Shasta is allowing 37 points per game, the most since the 2013 season (39.3) … Shasta is averaging 271 of offense per game, the lowest since 2011. Next up is College of the Siskiyous, which owns the all-time series against Shasta 35-22 but the Knights have won three of the past four meetings.
STATE LEADERS
Despite snapping his scoring streak, Tyler Carey's eight receiving touchdowns is tied for second in the state, his 11 touchdowns are tied for fourth and his 66 points are tied for fifth-most ... Anthony Slayton is tied for fifth in tackles per game with 8.9 (62 total) ... Reyjon Williams is fifth in kick return average with 29.1 and is one of eight players in California who have returned a kick for a touchdown this season with a 100-yarder ... Shasta ranks second in kick return yards for the season with 870 yards on 40 kick returns (21.8 average) but has only returned seven punts for 34 yards.
STANDINGS
Team NorCal, Overall
#5 Sierra 2-0, 6-1
American River 2-0, 4-3
Butte 1-1, 4-3
Santa Rosa 1-1, 3-4
Shasta 0-2, 2-5
Siskiyous 0-2, 1-5
Photo Credit: Mike Daly