Bearcats drop third consecutive game to open season
Monache High Marauders earned their first win of the season and improved to 1-3, Bearcats fell to 0-3
– The Paso Robles High School Bearcats dropped their third consecutive game to start the season against the Monache High School Marauders (Porterville) on Friday night by a score of 24-14 at War Memorial Stadium in Paso Robles. The Marauders earned their first win of the season and improved to 1-3 while the Bearcats fell to 0-3.
The start of this game was wild, to say the least. Paso Robles started the game off with the ball and coughed up possession on a strip sack but got the ball right back a play later on an interception by sophomore defensive back Justin Wilshusen.
The Bearcats came up empty on that possession and Monache marched down the field to the two-yard line, but fumbled the ball on the goal line and Paso Robles jumped on top of it.
Despite all of this action happening in the opening frame, the quarter ended with a 0-0 score.
The Marauders opened the second quarter with the ball and drove all the way down inside the 20-yard line, but penalties faltered their drive and they settled for a field goal to go up 3-0 with 8:55 left in the half.
After the Bearcats’ next possession ended in another punt, Monache broke off a huge run bringing the ball all the way to the one-yard line and punching into the end zone. There was an offsides penalty against Paso Robles which resulted in a two-point conversion that put them up 11-0 with 5:50 left in the half.
The Bearcats responded on their next drive as they slowly marched down the field and put the ball in the endzone with a six-yard touchdown run from senior running back Conner Bowman, but they couldn’t convert the two-point attempt bringing the score to 11-6 at halftime.
The third quarter featured more defensive production as the teams traded multiple punts during the quarter as the score remained 11-6 at the end of the third.
The scoring didn’t pick up again until Paso Robles threw an interception after the targeted receiver fell down running his route, which was brought into Bearcat territory and set up a four-yard touchdown run from the Marauders which brought the score to 17-6 after the extra point attempt was blocked.
The Bearcats tried to get something going on offense, but in doing so, resulted in a strip sack that was brought all the way back for another Monache touchdown to increase the lead to 24-6 with 2:06 left in the game.
Paso Robles responded with a touchdown pass from senior quarterback Hayden Mckenna to sophomore tight end Dominic Messina to cut the deficit down to 24-14 after converting the two-point attempt but it was too little too late as the Marauders shut the door on the Bearcats on their way to the 24-14 final.
“[The defense] played their butts off, we just weren’t able to find anything on offense,” Paso Robles head coach Tim Alvord said postgame. “We’re still searching for an identity and this is the result.”
The Bearcats will continue to look for their first win of the season next week at home against Righetti High School on Friday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m.
-Report and photos by Sergio Romero
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