SANTA ROSA — Uncharacteristically loose with the football, in its conference opener, on the road, there was a number of factors that could have spelled upset for the top-ranked Butte College football team.
Of course, the only number that ever seems to matter these days for the Roadrunners is an abstract one: more. And in the categories that count, Butte simply had more than did Santa Rosa on Friday night.
The Roadrunners dominated time of possession and showed that their vaunted run game isn’t all there is to their offense in a 49-21 blasting of the Bear Cubs at Bailey Field in both teams’ NorCal Conference opener.
Butte (6-0) turned the ball over a season-high three times, but as usual, its playmaking defense answered the call — this time by forcing five of its own. Brian Anderson and Deonte Flemings each had two interceptions and Mike Fratianni recovered a fumble, and four of those turnovers led to touchdowns.
“There were a ton of big plays in this game. I’m glad I took my blood pressure medicine today,” Butte head coach Jeff Jordan said. “It did seem like every big play, or big turnover, that they had, we were able to answer back. I’m proud of our guys for just continuing to play the game.”
Kendall Williams, starting in place of injured Robert Frazier, had 124 rushing yards on 22 carries, including a 39-yard TD run, and Tommy Stuart threw for 124 yards on 11-of-16 passing with three touchdowns. Williams also had, of all things, a 23-yard touchdown pass — a gadget play on a fourth-and-1 that saw him shovel to a wide-open Bo Brummel, who had two TD catches himself.
Butte opened up a 14-0 lead in the first half, after Stuart hit Brummel on a 5-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and, later in the second period, a 9-yard scoring completion to C.J. Grice.
The Roadrunners were positioned to score again, but Stuart was sacked from behind and fumbled, and Santa Rosa recovered and immediately drove down to cut the score in half on Mike Pierson’s 24-yard touchdown pass to K’Lan Anderson.
That sequence, followed by an Eric Ascencio interception, appeared to give the Bear Cubs the momentum they’d need for perhaps a game-tying surge. Ascencio took over at quarterback for a series in place of Stuart, who was shaken up, but Stuart returned. Brian Anderson, who has emerged as a leader in the Roadrunner linebacker corps mainly as a solid tackler and run-stopper, twice dropped back into coverage and picked off Pierson, each time leading to a Butte score.
“It was important to end the half that way,” Anderson said. “Coaches put us in the position to make plays and we just did our jobs. On that second one, I was dropping back, I saw the defensive line get pressure to the quarterback, and he was just lobbing the ball up. It made it easier on me.”
Important scoring plays happened after each pick: Williams took a carry around the left end, delivered a massive stiff-arm to a would-be tackler and then sped 39 yards for the TD that made it 21-7. A minute later, after another Anderson interception, Marvel Harris ran it in from 6 yards out for the 28-7 lead that Butte carried into halftime. It was a dream half, all considered, for a Butte team that will see top-tier talent the rest of the way.
“It’s a definite step up in competition and we got some good experience of that,” Jordan said.
Grice hauled in two touchdown catches, including one amazing leaping grab over his defender on a fade route for a 19-yard score. He also had a 9-yard TD grab and finished with 39 yards receiving.
Santa Rosa (4-2) got some good production out of K’Lan Anderson, who had eight catches for 87 yards and a score on top of a 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, but the Bear Cubs’ run game was stifled. Butte limited the hosts to just 40 yards on 22 attempts, countering with a much healthier 278 rush yards as the Roadrunners controlled time of possession to the extreme — Butte had the ball for nearly 39 minutes. Once Armand Bokitch added an 11-yard touchdown run at the 10:18 mark of the fourth quarter, making it 49-14, it was fairly clear the Roadrunners were on their way to another victory.
“We’ve got a lot of great chemistry on this team,” Brian Anderson said, “and it’s all got to keep coming together.”
Connect with Sports Writer Travis Souders at twitter.com/TravisSouders.
