Red Bluff football blows past West Valley after trailing early

Creating a winning culture takes time, a lot of hard work and getting players to believe.

Red Bluff head coach Jacob Daricek saw his Spartan football team take steps toward that culture in Friday’s 21-7 win over West Valley. Junior quarterback Kayden Leaf ran for 117 yards and two touchdowns, while senior running back Jose (Chaco) Chavez added 112 yards on the ground and a score.

“In the past we’ve found ways to lose and we’re working on trying to find ways to win,” he said.

That was evident when the Spartans (4-1) gave up a first-quarter touchdown to Isaac Brackett.

“We haven’t shown the ability to play from behind,” Daricek said. “We gave up three first downs (on the West Valley touchdown drive) on fourth-down plays. We just needed to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

“We need to control what we do.”

That started after Red Bluff and West Valley traded interceptions, leading to the first Spartans score in the second half.

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“That (our interception) was a bad call on my part,” Daricek said. I apologized to Leaf and said the defense would make it up for us. That kind of charged him up.”

Red Bluff got the ball back and marched down the field to tie the game at 7 on a 12-yard TD run by Leaf.

“We went back to base stuff,” the coach said, where the Spartans had been looking to exploit matchups on earlier drives. “We said ‘Screw it, let’s get back to what we do.'

“Once we got a couple of big runs from Chaco, we realized our stuff was working … power to the right and counter to the left.”

And while the Spartans are relatively young, which helps in the culture rebuild, senior free safety Mickey Cohn had another standout game with 17 tackles and two tackles for loss.

“When you’re watching film and logging stats, you look up and suddenly he has all these tackles,” Daricek said. “It’s nice to have a free safety come downhill and make plays like that.

“This guy is flying around and tenacious and wants to get in on the play. He’s one of those kids you wanna root for because he does things the right way. Guys like him are how you change the culture.”

Daricek knows his team has momentum and some belief heading into Eastern Athletic League play, but also realizes they have to come out and earn it each week.

“We’re trying to enjoy 4-1 … Red Bluff hasn’t been 4-1 since 2004, but our league is super tough and we’re trying to build a program that can compete,” he said.

West Valley coach Jason Westin said he wasn’t satisfied with the final score, but was pleased to see the fight in the short-handed Eagles.

“We’re young and banged up, but the word of the week was ‘finish’ and we didn’t do that,” he said. “We have to figure things out as we turn to league. We fully expect to be 5-0 in league.”

One of the bright spots in the loss was senior Isaac Brackett, who rushed for 132 yards and a score.

“Everyone predicted us to lose by 40, but we came out and marched down the field and ran the ball with a back who hadn’t run the ball for us this season,” the coach said.

Youth and injuries forcing reserves into starting roles mean the Eagles have to grow up quickly, Westin said.

“Kids assume that ‘I’ve played football since I was young,’ but when the lights go on at 7:30, it’s different,” he said. “But they haven’t dropped their heads. The effort is there. It’s still West Valley football.”

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Foothill 46, Corning 13

The Cougars ran for five scores and found the end zone twice by air in a rout of the Cardinals before entering Eastern Athletic League play with a trip to Shasta.

Anderson 54,  Oroville 0

The Cubs ran out to a 32-point first-quarter lead and never looked back as Big Blue improved to 3-2 heading into its Northern Athletic League opener Friday against Yreka.

Sophomore Ethan Donavon ran for 69 yards and scored twice while Michael Manley (48 yards), Malachi Taylor (61 yards), Chris Fain (65 yards), Gavin Lockhart (76 yards) and Porter Virgin (32 yards) also all found the end zone.

Defensively, the Cubs blanked the Tigers as the team had seven sacks led by Nathan Sanders (2.0) and Jacob Torres (1.5).

Central Valley 30, Willows 8

After back-to-back losses, coach Kyle Anderson said it was good for his Falcons to right the ship prior to NAL play.

“We played with resilience and weren’t phased when we were down at half,” he said. “The defense held strong, we bent but didn’t break.”

The Falcons got 177 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Diego Recio while junior quarterback Osker Trompczynski added 74 yards on the ground and another score.

Recio is 78 yards short of 1,000 five games in the season and Anderson said his success is owed to his ability as well as a young offensive line which is getting comfortable in the scheme.

“We take a lot of pride in running the ball and four of the five starters (on the line) are young,” said Anderson, a former CV offensive lineman. “We focus on technique and finishing the block, and Diego does a great job setting them up for success with his patient running.”

In addition to his work with the rock, Recio also tallied 15 tackles in the win. Sophomore linebacker A.J. Johnson also had 15 tackles, drawing praise from Anderson.

“We sometimes forget he’s a sophomore,” the coach said. “He’s a dude at outside linebacker and just growing into his position and getting comfortable.

“He has all the tools to play beyond Central Valley. He’s built the right way and is a great building block for this team."

Orland vs. Durham, no contest

The Trojans led 6-0 midway through the first quarter when lightning and weather forced the cancellation of the contest. It was unknown if the game will be finished.

Quincy 26, Redding Christian 13

Coming off their biggest win in program history, the Lions fell to 1-3 in Cascade Valley League play.

Fall River 30, Mount Shasta 0

The Bulldogs bounced back from their first loss since 2019 behind 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Carter Kroschel on 22 carries.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Red Bluff football blows past West Valley, other Redding area scores