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Slide show has both girls and boys varsity photos

DORRIS – The Lost River Raiders girls and boys teams both notched wins on Tuesday night against the Butte Valley Bulldogs. The Lady Raiders prevailed 54-14. The boys took down the Dawgs, 61-44.

In the girls game, Lost River ran out to a 14-2 lead in the first quarter, and the Lady Bulldogs never recovered. Lost River led 30-6 at the half, 44-12 at the end of three quarters, and cruised to the 54-14 win.

Megan Parks led the Lady Raiders with 19 points. Alexis Turner put up 11, and Danea Swartout added 9 points.

For Butte Valley, Lydia Hill scored 6 points, and Anna Austin had 4.

The boys game was considerably more competitive in the early stages. The Bulldogs went out to a 4-0 lead a pair of buckets by Gus Lopez. Lost River responded with an 11-1 run. With the score tied 5-5, Blake Ireland dropped in a couple of freebies, giving the Raiders a 7-5 lead. Ireland added a hoop, and then Chance Mcaullife stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for a bucket, extending the Raider lead to 11-5, with 1:23 to go in the opening frame. Lost River led 11-6 at the end of the quarter. (more…)

The Weed Cougars improved to 3-2 on the season with a 57-32 win over the Butte Valley Bulldogs on Monday night in Weed.

The Cougars raced out to a 10-0 lead to open the game. Tommy Haosouphanthong opened the scoring with a hoop. Trevor Shaffer followed with a bucket, and Noah Traylor added a deuce to make it 6-0. Baskets by Josh Rogers and Traylor made it 10-0.

Andrew Lucitskii broke the ice for the Bulldogs with a sweet baseline drive, making it 10-2.

Weed led 18-6 at the end of the first quarter. (more…)

The Weed Lady Cougars moved to 4-0 on the season with a defensive gem on Monday night in Weed, defeating the two-time D-VI defending champion Butte Valley Lady Bulldogs, 38-13.

The Lady Cougars held the Bulldogs scoreless for over three minutes in the first quarter, and allowed only three points in the opening frame. Offensively, Karene Marshall opened the scoring for Weed with a 3-ball, and then a deuce to give the Lady COugars a 5-0 lead. After Butte Valley’s Kara Porterfield scored, Destiny Jones added a hoop and a freebie to make it an 8-2 lead for Weed. Tyresha Leonard pushed the advantage to 10-2, with a basket. A free throw by Bulldog Lydia Hill made it 10-3 at the end of the quarter.

It as more of the same in the second quarter, as the Lady Cougars allowed just one Butte Valley score, a hoop by Hill, while putting up 12 of their own points. Marshall capped the half with a 3-point play the hard way, to make it 22-5 going at the intermission. (more…)

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The Weed Cougar boys varsity basketball team got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Brandon Williams to beat the Butte Valley Bulldogs 48-47 on Tuesday night in Dorris.

Joshua Rogers led the Cougars with 15 points. Trevor Shaffer had 12 points, and Williams put up 10 points.

The Bulldogs were led by Andrew Lucitskii’s 14 points. Nathan Cushman had 11 points, including three 3-balls. Tyler Coltrin and Ben Field each contributed 7 points. (more…)

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For the fourth year, PremierWest Bank and SiskiyouYouth.com are sponsoring the Basketball Challenge for varsity basketball teams in Siskiyou County: Butte Valley, Dunsmuir, Etna, Happy Camp, Mt. Shasta, Tulelake, Weed, and Yreka. The winning team’s players and coaching staff will receive custom made “Team of the Year” T-shirts.

The winner of the challenge will be the girls or boys team that is most successful during the 2010/2011 season, which is defined as the team that advances the furthest in the North Section CIF playoffs. The challenge will end at the finish of the section playoffs and does not include any state playoff games because Division-VI teams (Butte Valley, Dunsmuir, and Happy Camp) are not eligible for state playoffs. Tiebreakers also do not include state playoff games. Games against JV teams do not count. (more…)

DORRIS – It was the match up that most 8-Man football fans likely wanted to see for the section championship—a rematch from earlier in the season when the Butte Valley Bulldogs defeated the Dunsmuir Tigers, 27-26, in Dunsmuir. There was little doubt that the two teams were the best in the division.

The Bulldogs earned home field throughout the playoffs by running the table in the regular season, and then winning their first two playoff games against Loyalton and Princeton in convincing fashion. Dunsmuir found its way to the title game by rolling into Westwood for a semi-final game, and cutting down the Lumberjacks. Dunsmuir’s only regular season loss was at the hands of the Bulldogs.

The championship game on Wednesday night had just about everything a football fan could ask for—five lead changes, defensive scores, controversial calls, tough defense and plenty of big offensive plays.

Perhaps the biggest play of the game came with a little over six minutes to go in the final frame. Dunsmuir was leading 34-32 and had a third-and-goal from the Bulldog 12-yard-line. The Tigers threw on third down, and Bulldog Will Gentry picked off the pass and raced 86 yards to pay dirt for what would prove to be the game and section winning touchdown. It was also Gentry who intercepted a Tiger pass and returned it for a touchdown when the two teams met in the regular season.

“I was just hoping no one would catch me from behind,” said Gentry after the game.

To start the game, Butte Valley won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. Dunsmuir’s opening drive stalled and the Tigers were forced to punt.

The Bulldogs went to work on their first possession from their own three-yard-line. One play and 97 yards later, Colten Struble put Butte Valley up 6-0, with 8:58 left in the first quarter. The 2-point conversion failed. (more…)

This is raw video of Bulldog Will Gentry’s section-winning interception and return for a TD. Butte Valley defeated Dunsmuir 40-34. Full video highlights and story will be posted by 3:00 pm on Thursday. (more…)

Opinion

I’ve been meaning to write this for years. Yes, literally “years.” Finally, I’ve had enough with the North Section CIF system for football playoff ranking. The North Section’s way of determining football playoff teams is seriously flawed. It rewards mediocrity and it often denies good teams a fair shot at making the playoffs or being ranked as high as they should be in playoff points. If you want to skip all the explanation and just get to my proposed formula, click “more” and scroll down.

For a concrete example of a team in this year’s playoffs that greatly benefited from this bogus system, we can look at Gridley (4-6) in Division-II.

What did Gridley, a team with a losing record, do to merit not just being a playoff team, but a 5-seed? Well, they went 0-2 against D-III teams. They were 2-3 against D-II teams. Of course they were 2-1 against D-I schools—D-I schools with a combined 8-22 (.364) record , including that 0-10 powerhouse Las Plumas. They did not beat a single team with a winning record.

On the other hand, there were two 5-5 teams left out, Central Valley and Yreka. Let’s compare.

Central Valley was 1-0 against D-III teams, 3-3 against D-II teams, and 1-2 against D-I teams. CV’s D-I opponents were a combined 17-13 (.567), including 8-2 Enterprise and 8-2 West Valley. While the Falcons didn’t beat a team with a winning record, they did beat Gridley, 32-15, in Gridley…that’s a pretty decisive road win.

So, how about Yreka. Hmm, Yreka was 1-1 against D-III opponents, 4-3 against D-II opponents, and 0-1 against D-I. Yreka’s D-I opponent was 8-2.They beat Central Valley, 21-6, in CV, during the Falcons’ homecoming none the less. Oh, and they had that win over some pretty good team. Now, who was that? Oh ya, number-1 ranked, 9-1 Orland—a team that beat Gridley 42-7! So, the team that handed the top team it’s only defeat, has a better winning percentage than Gridley, both overall and in division, doesn’t make the playoffs?

Can you maybe see why I refer to the North Sections’ playoff ranking formula as “flawed.” (more…)

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HAPPY CAMP – Coming into Friday night’s game, the Happy Camp Indians (4-2, 5-3) had won four straight. The Butte Valley Bulldogs (6-0, 8-0) hadn’t lost since the final game of last season. On paper, it looked like it would be a tight contest, and it was for about a quarter and a half.

The Indians got the first break of the game, when Sean McDowell recovered a fumble at the Bulldog 36-yard line. However, Butte Valley’s defense forced a turnover on downs, and the Bulldog offense went to work from its own 33-yard-line.

This time, the Dogs took care of the ball, and went 67 yards to pay dirt. Fifty-seven of the yards were covered on a Colten Struble to Will Gentry TD pass. Struble then threw to Bobby Vaughan for a 2-point conversion, giving the Bulldogs an 8-0 lead, with 8:19 left in the first quarter.

About seven minutes later, Gustavo Lopez rushed 24 yards for a touchdown. The 2-point conversion failed, leaving Butte Valley with a 14-0 lead.

Eleven seconds into the second quarter, Happy Camp answered. Charley Reed connected with James Simmons for a 45-yard TD pass. Justin Wright powered in for the 2-point conversion, making the score 14-8. (more…)

Former Butte Valley Lady Bulldog Kady Porterfield has been named Fighting Tiger Athlete of the Week at Division-III SUNY Cobleskill University in New York.

According to the Fighting Tigers’ website, “The freshman outside/middle hitter (Porterfield) was named to the All-Tournament Team at the 2011 Continental Classic hosted by Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. over the weekend after averaging 1.9 kills and 2.8 digs per contest in 12 tournament appearances.”

Her performance in the tournament led to Porterfield’s selection as the Fighting Tiger Athlete of the Week. (more…)

DUNSMUIR – The showdown between the undefeated Dunsmuir Tigers and the undefeated Butte Valley Bulldogs at Dunsmuir City Park was pure Friday night smash-mouth football, 8-man style. Whoever said there’s no defense in 8-man football would have gone into cardiac arrest watching the heavy hitting on display by arguably the North Section’s two best defenses, and two best teams.

Back and forth the squads went, moving the ball a bit, but unable to find pay dirt for the first eight and a half minutes of the first quarter—a time frame that’s the equivalent of a light-year in 8-man football.

Fittingly, it was the Bulldog defense that drew first blood, when Will Gentery flashed across the field in front of a seemingly open Tiger receiver, picked off the pass, and then sprinted nearly uncontested for 25 yards to the end zone. The 2-point attempt failed, but the Dogs had the lead 6-0, with 3:36 to play in the first quarter.

With the portal to offense opened, it took the Tigers just two minutes to answer. A long run by Justin DeClusin set Dunsmuir up with a first-and-goal at about the Bulldog 5-yard-line. Two plays later, Jake Mekeel blasted in from a yard out. The Tigers’ 2-point try also failed, leaving the combatants tied 6-6, with 1:27 to go in the opening frame. The teams would stay knotted up for nearly 12 minutes.

With 1:43 to go before half, after Gentery had pulled down another interception to give Butte Valley possession, Bulldog Colten Struble raced 50 yards for a TD, giving the Dogs the lead, 12-6, going into the intermission. (more…)