Long night for El Dorado in West Sac visit

WEST SACRAMENTO — Scoring early, often and at will, host River City rolled over El Dorado 65-12 Friday in Sierra Valley Conference football action.

The Cougars couldn't match the Raiders' potent offense and defensively, couldn't stop it. River City scored on all six first-half possessions and overall, eight straight before taking a knee late in the fourth quarter.

To make matters worse, El Dorado turned the ball over five times — consecutively — in the second quarter that the Raiders took to the house for touchdowns.

"We knew what they (River City) could do and felt we'd have a shot but we didn't play with much passion tonight," Cougar coach Dale Kasnic said. "I don't know if we were hot or tired getting off the bus but we couldn't figure out how to play football. We have kids that want to play but forgot how to play. Once we got down we folded the tent."

El Dorado was down from the get-go as the Raiders took the opening kickoff and went 59 yards in six plays with Uriah Clark covering the final 2. Clark (156 yards, three touchdowns) was tough on Cougar defenders — El Dorado's first contact failed to stop his forward motion and the River City senior quickly challenged the Cougar secondary of Wade Bennett, Chris Tate, Nick Jones and Alex Stone.

Trailing 7-0, El Dorado responded on its first touch as Gabe Derilo took the kickoff, shot through the middle, veered right, cut left and outraced the Raiders into the end zone for an 86-yard touchdown. Derilo's many returns after River City scores helped give the Cougars decent field position all evening.

As 10 Corvettes and royalty awaited Friday's halftime Homecoming festivities, they saw plenty of fireworks by the home team, including touchdowns on an interception and fumble return eight seconds apart that had the Raiders up 38-6 with 7:23 left before the break.

El Dorado scored its only other points 5:37 into the second quarter when Derilo grabbed a Travis Vincent pass over the middle, picked up an upfield block and darted into the end zone to complete a 65-yard catch-and-run.

"It was a 93-off fade and I went across the middle, Travis saw me, I got a good grip of the ball and a good block by my tight end Caleb Melton," Derilo said. "On my first touchdown, I was trying to rally the team and let them know that just because we get scored on doesn't mean it's over."

Of the few passes the Raiders threw Friday, the Cougars couldn't stop any. River City quarterbacks went 5-of-5 for 137 yards and two touchdowns. Due to the 52-12 halftime score, the second half was running clock.

Derilo opened the game at quarterback for El Dorado and completed passes to Clayton Van Duyn and Melton before yielding to Vincent who went the rest of the way. Vincent's targets were Derilo, Stone and unfortunately, several Raiders.

Cougar running back Travis Allec broke off a 30-yard run right before halftime and in the third quarter picked up 38 yards on El Dorado's best drive before a fumble put River City back on offense.

The Cougars stay on the road next week with a game at Placer.

 

Jerry Heinzer

Jerry Heinzer is going on 12 years as an employee of the Mountain Democrat and is currently the Sports Editor. Contact Jerry at 530-344-5074 or jheinzer@mtdemocrat.net. Follow @ JHeinzerMtDemo on Twitter.

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