While it's never the way a team wants to end the season, the California Pintos saw a lot of positives during its 2015 campaign, but the season ended Friday night after a 48-21 loss to the Southern Boone Eagles in district play.
"It's always sad when you end the season and you had these seniors for four years," California head coach Marty Albertson said. "You love them like your own and you hate to see them go. You don't want them to go out like that either."
Costly turnovers hurt the Pintos during the early portion of the game, committing five turnovers in the first half. California had three fumbles and two interception during the first 24 minutes of the game, but the Pintos' defense held strong and only allowed Southern Boone to take an 18-0 lead at the break.
The defense forced two turnovers themselves and had to deal with Southern Boone starting its drives on short fields. The Eagles' average starting field position was on their own 46-yard line, starting two drives on the Pintos' 30 and 15-yard line during the first half. Both of those possessions went for Southern Boone touchdowns.
"I thought the defense played well in the first half," Albertson said. "They got worn out the second half basically. Offense got going a little bit in the second half, but it was just way too late. If we would have scored a couple of times in the first half, it would have been a different game."
Sophomore quarterback Jacob Wolken was intercepted on the third play of the game, with Southern Boone scoring its first touchdown four plays later. Laron Wallace scored on a second-and-goal play from the 4-yard line to give his team a 6-0 lead.
The two teams traded a couple of fumbles and punts before the Eagles got on the board again. Wolken and junior running back Gunner Baquet couldn't handle an option-pitch-play, fumbling the ball on California's 15-yard line.
Wallace scored on his team's first play from the 15-yard line to take the 12-0 lead.
California had its chances on offense in the first half to keep the game close, but miscommunication in the passing game hurt the chances. Wolken's first interception came when he thought the receiver was hitching instead of hitting the go-route.
"Yes, a couple of different times tonight where he thought they were hitching up and they went long," Albertson said.
The Eagles added their third touchdown midway through the second quarter off a Spencer Taggart to Gannon Mueller receiver-screen pass for 17 yards.
"It seemed like they had the ball the whole first half and we didn't have it very much, and when we did have it, we turned it over," Albertson said. "A couple of fumbles, a couple of interceptions, way too many of course."
In the second half, Southern Boone took the opening kickoff and drove the ball 72 yards on 11 plays while taking off seven minutes of game clock to extend the lead to 26-0. A fake punt on a fourth-and-5 allowed the Eagles to keep their drive alive, as Mueller took the snap from the punter position and ran up the middle for 35 yards.
Facing the big deficit, California's offense didn't give up, scoring three touchdowns in a short amount of time.
Wolken found senior Landon Mouse for a 17-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 26-7 in the third quarter, and senior Ethan Hodges had two 70-plus-yard touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
Mouse led the team with seven receptions for 80 yards and the touchdown, and Hodges had two catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns.
Wolken connected with Hodges - who made an incredible one-handed grab - over the middle for the 75-yard score, and senior Josh Woodruff completed a halfback-pass to Hodges on California's next drive for the 73-yard touchdown.
But the Eagles answered every California touchdown with a score of their own, push the lead to 48-21 in the final minutes of the game.
"They played us basically man-up the whole time across," Albertson said. "They were giving us the short throw most of the time and we burned them deep a couple of times later on, but it was way too late by that time."
California ends its season with a 6-4 overall record and a second-place finish in the Tri-County Conference, posting a 6-1 record.