Wolves bounce back with win over Eagles

After a rough first game, the Wolves were in dire need of a bounce-back victory lest they fall to 0-2 early on in a new season.

Senior quarterback Clay Cavender and a stingy defense made sure the Shasta High School football team made a full recovery.

Cavender threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third as the Wolves pounded host West Valley 33-14 on Friday at The Pasture.

Tre Green added two touchdown runs for Shasta (1-1).

The Wolves were turnover-prone in last week’s 24-3 loss at Lassen, but won the turnover battle against the Eagles 4-2 with both of the Wolves’ miscues coming off botched punt returns.

“Our kids played clean football,” Wolves coach Aaron Gingery said. “They took care of the ball and Clay made some good decisions out there.”

Cavender showed he was more than a running threat. He was 13-for-20 for 154 yards, but did most of his damage in the opening 13 minutes.

“That was sweet,” Cavender said. “My line did a great job for me. They gave me plenty of time and I felt totally comfortable back there.”

Shasta got the ball in great field position after a 14-yard punt by West Valley on its second possession, taking over on the Eagles’ 18-yard line. The Eagles stymied them on the first two downs, but Cavender found an open Brock Callaway for an 18-yard touchdown strike off a busted Eagles coverage for a quick 7-0 Shasta lead with 6:41 left in the first quarter.

West Valley tied things up at 7-7 on John Holmer’s 22-yard touchdown run off a fly sweep after the first of Shasta’s two botched fielded punts.

But Cavender responded with a perfect 49-yard touchdown strike to Steven Johnson with 2:04 left in the opening quarter after Johnson burned an opposing Eagles cornerback down the left sideline.

Cavender then made it 21-7 on a 3-yard scoring scamper on the opening play of the second quarter and the Wolves pulled away.

West Valley had a chance to get back into the game after Jesse Robbins recovered Shasta's second fumbled punt return on the Wolves' 31.

The Eagles got down inside the 10, but Robbins was stripped of the ball and Green, playing linebacker defensively for Shasta, recovered on the 5.

West Valley then showed its inexperience, committing two big penalties to help Shasta march 95 yards the other way. Green would power his way into the end zone from 10 yards out with 3:45 left in the second quarter to make it 27-7 Wolves.

“We are a young team,” Eagles coach Greg Grandell said. “We had to play mistake-free ball to win. Our youth reared its ugly head everywhere tonight. A more veteran team may recover from a costly turnover, but we weren't able to do so.”

Shasta then put the game away on a 12-play, 81-yard drive that consumed over half the third quarter before Green bolted in from 16 yards out on a counter play.

West Valley did run for 201 yards on the ground, but a good chunk of it came in the final quarter when the outcome already was well in hand for Shasta.

Eagles junior quarterback Luke Wright was 7-for-11 for 94 yards and threw a 12-yard scoring strike to Marcus Howard in the game’s waning minutes, but lost two fumbles and was picked off once.

The road doesn’t get any easier for West Valley, which hosts section Division I champion Enterprise next week.

Meanwhile, the Wolves finally return home to host Red Bluff on Friday.