Corning Football

	Corning Union High School Football Team

	The Corning
	*Cardinals*

Anderson High School staked its claim as the lop football team in the North Section Friday, at the expense of Corning high school at its 31st homecoming.

The Cubs convincingly defeated the Cardinals. 38-14, by rushing for 423 yards on 52 carries and moving at will despite amassing 83 penalty yards on 10 flags. Corning’s only bright spot was the play of junior quarterback Clifton Taylor who came into the game in the second quarter to replace senior Eric Thibodeau. At the time the score was 14-0, and Corning had lost 15 yards on its first three possessions.

Taylor threw an interception on first pass, which led to a three-yard touchdown run by Cub quarterback Eric Caldwell and a 20-0 lead with 3:34 before half.

But after that Taylor was 1l-for-14 for 124 yards, by far the best day by a Coming quarterback this season. He also threw the first Corning touchdown pass of the season, a 7-yarder to Josh Woody midway through the fourth quarter: that made the score 32-14.

But other than that, the Cardinals could not muster much offense against the Cubs.

Fullback Earl Murr gained 75 yards on 17 carries, marking the first time this season he has run for less than 100 yards.

The running game gained just 101 total yards, hurt by 11 plays that were stopped behind the line of scrimmage.

The Cardinals were also hurt by the same yellow flags that Anderson was able to overcome. Corning was penalized five times, each for 15 yards for 75 yards in total fines.

Two of the15 yarders occurred in the first drive by Anderson. An unsportsmanlike penalty in the first play from scrimmage - after Anderson had backed itself into a 1st-and-20 through two procedure penalties - gave the Cubs a first down at their own 42. Three plays later Jamie Crawford cut right, through an off balanced front line, for a 50-yard touchdown run.

Crawford finished with a game-high l2l yards on 13 carries, and scored twice. Backfield mate Craig Koonlz gained another 108 on 10 carries, coming back from being carried off the field in the first quarter with an ankle injury. Anderson nearly had three 100-yard rushers, but Caldwell was nailed by Mike Mallon for a five-yard toss on the final play of the same. Caldwell finished with 95-yards.

Crawford scored again on the next Cubs possession, from two yards out, for a 14-0 lead.

While Corning’s offense tried to get on track, the next two Anderson drives were stopped by turnovers.

BillyTorres recovered a fumble on the Coming 16 to end the first, and Brad Hutsell intercepted a pass and returned it deep into Anderson territory on the next possession, only to have an illegal block nullify the return.

Anderson 38, Corning 14
Anderson …...... 14 6 6 12 - 38
Corning.......…..... 0 0 7 7 - 14

Rushing
Anderson (52-423): Crawford 13-121, Koontz 10-108, Caldwell 16-95, Thompson 4-33, McKinney 4-20, Duffy 3-38.

Corning (52-398): Birdwell 4-38, Murr 17-75, Peterson 1-(-1), Rice 6-8, Thibodeau 4-(-18), Taylor 7-(-1).
Passing
Anderson (2-6-1-17): Caldwell 2-6-1-17.
Corning (12-15-1-124): Taylor 12-15-1-124.
Receiving
Anderson (2-17): Duffy 1-9, Crawford 1-8.
Corning (11-124): Woody 4-53 (1-TD), Nunez 2-34, Thibodeau 2-20, Muir 2-11,McDonald 1-6.

Earl Murr has an unyielding habit of lauding his blockers after every big rushing game. Friday night’s win was no different, but this time the praise was well worth it.

Murr, a senior fullback, rambled for 240 yards rushing and three touchdowns, and caught a 44-yard screen pass for a fourth score to lead Corning to a surprisingly easy 37-8 victory over West Valley.

The win upped Corning to 3-0 in the Westside League, 5-3 over all and into a potential showdown for the title with Foothill, a monstrous 51-7 winner over Gridley. West Valley fell to 1-2 in league and 2-6 overall.

Murr did most of his running behind the large bodies of the Cardinal front line, most prominently tackle Mike Rubie and tight end Josh Woody.

In all, the Cards ran for 398 yards on 52 carries, and Clifton Taylor was 6-of-9 passing for another 88 to chalk up their best offensive performance of the year.

“That’s all it is, blocking,” Murr said, forgetting it was his second, third and sometimes fourth efforts that bullied Eagle defenders and gained many of the yards. “They block, I run. That’s the concept of the game, isn’t it?”

Tailback Jason Rice had another 122 yards on 18 carries, but was overshadowed by Murr. And Murr was often in the shadow of his linemen.

Leading 15-0 on a pair of first- half touchdown runs and a two-point conversion by Murr, the Cards took the second-half kickoff and moved to the West Valley 44 behind the running of Murr and Rice.

On second-and-8, Taylor faded back and dropped a screen pass to Murr. What followed resembled a freight train, as Murr was towed down the sideline by 6-foot-2, 192-pound Woody and the even bigger 6-3, 275-pound Rubie.

Woody and Rubie rumbled all the way to the goal line, wiping out at least four tacklers along the way. Murr followed behind, untouched.

“They told us not to hit anyone if we got way up there,” Woody said. “We didn’t want a penalty. I just watched him go in.”

Billy Torres booted the extra point, Corning led 22-0 and was never threatened again.

On the TD pass, Woody was worried about penalties because Corning, despite the lead, had shot itself in the foot too many times to put it aside.

On their second possession Rice ran for 29 yards only to have a late hit force a first-and-25 after the run. Three plays later Rice rambled for 30 yards, but a clip erased 17 yards of the run and pushed the Cards back another 15.

Corning got its act together late in the second quarter. Starting at the Card 27 after a West Valley punt, Rice and Murr accounted for all 73 yards on the drive, with Murr reaching the end zone on a 17-yard sweep with 3:32 to go.

When the Eagles were called offside on the extra point, Corning went, for a pair and got it with a Murr run.

Murr scored again 26 seconds before half on a 4-yard run, setup when Eagle speedster Cory Hein was stopped on a fake-punt run by Scott McDonald at the West Valley 42.

“I think everyone knew it was coming,” McDonald said. “That’s all I was looking for.”

McDonald had the unenviable task of marking Hein most of the game. He did score on a 71-yard TD reception on a screen pass that made the score 22-8, but Murr answered on the next series with a 38-yard TD run and two point conversion and Hein was held in check.

Hem finished with 120 yards receiving on six catches and 37 yards rushing on nine carries, but gained 10 yards on a play only twice.

“He made me nervous,” McDonald said. “But I. knew everyone else would help me out,”

All that stands between Corning and a shot at unbeaten powerhouse Foothill is Orland. Last year Corning ended Orland’s unbeaten season with a surprise upset. Now it is Orland’s turn to try to return the favor.

Corning 37, West Valley 8
West Valley ...... 0   0   0 8 - 8
Corning.............. 0 15 7 15 - 37

Rushing
West Valley (28-88): Salazar 11-47. Hein 9-37, Diaz 6-13, Knott 2-(-9).
Corning (52-398): Murr 24-240, Wilson 4-56, Taylor 6-(-20), Rice 18-122.
Passing
West Valley (11-31-1-144): Knott 11-31-1-144.
Corning (6-9-1-88): Taylor 6-9-1-88.
Receiving
West Valley (11-144): Walker 3-35, Hein 6-120, Bolton 1-14, Diaz 1-5.
Corning (6-88): Woody 1-12, Wilson 2-33, Rice 1-(-5). Muir 1-44. Carruth 1-4.

Princeton High School quarterback Ben Wilkins was named the Northern Section’s Most Valuable Offensive Player during the recent meeting of north state sports writers.

Wilkins heads the third annual All-Northern Section Football Team, along with Anderson’s Pat Bishop and Foothill’s Mark Pettengill. Bishop was the defensive player of the year and Pettengill was coach of the year.

Wilkins edged out Pleasant Valley High School’s Brian Higgins for the first-team quarterback spot, four votes to two, and then edged out Pleasant Valley running back Anousack Vongbandith and Foothill running back Andrew Boesiger for section offensive MVP.

Wilkins set a new section record practically every time be dropped back to pass this season. Besides the 56 section marks he tied or set, he also broke a few state marks as well.

For the overall season, Wilkins finished with 180 completions on 312 attempts for 2,688 yards and 45 touchdowns. Wilkins led the state in TD passes this year.

Joining him on the all-section team was teammate Chris Williamson, who was a second team choice at wide receiver. The senior wide-out caught 59 passes this year for 1,159 yards and 25 touchdowns.

Also on the second team were Josh Woody and Mike Mallon of Corning, Rob Stone of Willows and Danny Elliott of Williams.

Woody was named at defensive tackle after making the all-league team for the second straight year. According to Corning coach Bob Hall, Woody was the most consistent defensive performer for the Cardinals this season.

Mallon, meanwhile, was one of three second-team linebackers. The senior was the co-Defensive MVP of the Westside League and led the Cardinals with 80 tackles.

Stone was a force for the Honkers at defensive end all season long. He was particularly explosive in league play as he had three sacks against Quincy and five tackles behind the line of scrimmage vs. Sutter.

Elliott was one of the top kickers in the section as he booted three field goals and scored 31 extra points in helping lead the Yellow-jackets to a MVL title.

Bishop was the easy choice as the section’s defensive player of the year. The 6-3, 275-pound senior defensive tackle devastated opponents and garnered double and triple teaming most of the season.

Pettengill led one of the more remarkable turnarounds in section history when he guided the Foothill Cougars to a 10-0 regular season record after finishing 0-10 last season.

Along the way, Foothill set new state records for points in a regular season and point differential.

Four players were named to the team for the second year In a row. Williamson was one of them and Pleasant Valley’s Jordan Swick, Yreka’s Rodney Wood and Chico’s Shad Linquist were the other two.

Wood moved from nose tackle to defensive end this year and continued to dominate. He was a first-team pick last year at defensive tackle.

Swick moved up to the first team this year after making the second team last year.

Linquist was the second team punter last year but edged out Oroville’s Andy McClellan for the first team spot this season.

Other top offensive players on the first team included Vongbandith and Bonsiger.

Vongbandith scored 21 touch-downs and ran for over 1,500 yards this season for the Vikings. Boesiger. meanwhile, averaged over 11 yards per carry for the Cougars while scoring 23 touchdowns and racing for over 1,300 yards.

Boesigcr was one of five under-classmen on the team. Others included teammate Jon Greenway and Anderson’s Eric Thompson, both juniors, and sophomores Peter Staler of Pleasant Valley and Tee Coleman of Enterprise.

The voting panel was made up of writers from the Chico Enterprise-Record, Redding Record-Searchlight, Yuba-Sutter Appeal-Democrat, Red Bluff Daily News, Lassen County
Times and Tri-County Newspapers.