With only one loss on the Bruins record this season, Bear River’s Varsity Football team are heading into their second Playoff game against Ripon High School’s Indians.
Longtime Varsity Coach Scott Savoie reflected on making it to Playoffs.
“Well, we’re excited about it,” Coach Savoie said. “I mean it’s going into the season, that’s definitely always one of our goals, winning League championships is up there. I’m hoping that we play well … and we advance on to the second level, and hopefully the third level. We’re in a great position right now. We just need to finish things up.”
Senior Sam Davis commented his feelings toward on the outcome of the regular season.
“I mean, it’s gone pretty well,” Davis said. “We’ve been very successful. We’ve done our jobs, we’ve come out mostly with wins, so it’s pretty good.”
Senior Austin Slining agreed with Davis.
“I feel like it’s a pretty good season, especially coming off last year with the Section Championship,” Slining said. “I mean this team has got a lot more talent left in it. We could go far, we just gotta keep our heads up and the only thing that could stop us is ourselves.”
Despite the amazing season and performance by the team, there was one loss on their record against Bear River’s heated rivals, the Colfax Falcons.
“That Bear River-Colfax game, a lot of kids in high school sports don’t get a chance to play a game quite like that,” said Coach Savoie. “There’s so much history. It’s a great rivalry. It’s the Hatfields and the McCoys of Northern California, so it’s a fun one for sure.”
Senior Chad Bucher further explained the rivalry.
“It’s a huge rivalry,” Bucher said. “We always want to win that every year, [but] they do too. It’s really all about execution, about who works harder and who competes [for] more, and the person who works harder is going to win at the end of the day.”
Throughout the season, especially in the Bear River-Colfax game, Bruins players said they had problems with the game officials.
Senior Jonny Carillo expressed his frustration.
“Well, we got 90 yards in penalties towards us from that game and there was a lot of penalties that they shouldn’t have called, and some they should have called for Colfax,” Carillo said.
Senior Zane Beaton agreed with Carillo.
“Honestly, that game kinda made me upset, cause the refs, y’know,” said Beaton. “They didn’t really seem to care about how our side of the field was doing and calling a lot of illegal stuff that shouldn’t have been called.”
Coach Savoie had different feelings towards the officials, specifically during the Colfax game.
“Yeah, there’s always gonna be those [refs], but the bottom line is that we didn’t play well enough to win,” Coach Savoie said. “I don’t think we played as well as we should have. I think that’s one of those things, to get a chance to play Colfax again is something that our kids in the back of their minds they’re thinking about.”
Overall, the team felt as though they had a prosperous season, and have hopes to go all the way.
“I mean, we’re the only team to go 9-1 in 5 or 6 years,” said Beaton. “… I think we’re in a pretty high seat in the Playoff bracket. I think we have a good chance of going all the way.”
— Katie Desplancke contributed to this report.
