This week’s opening round playoff game against Pleasant Valley could be the Cardinals’ toughest test this season.
The Vikings offense isn’t as powerful as Shasta’s but its defense is tougher. Pleasant Valley (6-4, 2-2 EAL South) allowed just 126 points during the regular season despite playing against all the top teams in the section, including Paradise, Lassen, Shasta and Foothill. The only team to score more than 21 points against the Vikings is Shasta, which won 47-6.
Corning (8-2, 3-1 NAL) has one of the most powerful offenses in the section and averages 43 points a game since losing to Shasta 63-7 on Sept. 24.
The Cardinals’ blocking has improved and the team is gaining confidence after bouncing back from a loss to West Valley to claim a share of the Northern Athletic League championship with four straight wins, fullback Tyler McIntyre said.
“I don’t think there is a defense that can stop us right now in this section,” he said. “The only people that can stop us are ourselves.”
Both teams have momentum coming into the playoffs and the team with the fewest mistakes will most likely move on to face No. 1 seed Paradise.
Two weeks ago, the Vikings lost Enterprise (3-7, 1-3 EAL North) but bounced back by handing Foothill (9-1, 3-1 EAL North) its first loss of the season.
Pleasant Valley runs behind a large offensive line anchored by 6-foot-5 305-pound University of California bound Jordan Rigsbee, son of former Butte College head football coach Craig Rigsbee.
The Cardinals will need to get low on Rigsbee and prevent him from getting his hands in on the linemen’s pads, McIntyre said.
“What I see is they’re just going to try to pound the ball and it’s because we’re the littler school,” McIntyre said. “They think they’re going to push us around so they’re going to come in and start running the ball and when we stop them and shut them up that’s when they’re going to start passing.”
The Vikings are a complete team and their backs are dangerous but the receivers and tight ends can catch too, Corning head coach John Studer said.
“I think that’s honestly one thing that not given enough credit for them is their skill players,” Studers said. “I think everyone talks about their line and how big they are but their running backs, they’re tough and they’ve got speed.”
Pleasant Valley is good enough to beat anybody in the section, he said.
“From watching film, even games they lost, it doesn’t look like they didn’t come out with energy ready to play,” Studer said. “I think it can be attributed to they’re a good team and they’re playing against some other good teams.”
There are four common opponents between the teams this year with both teams beating Las Plumas, Red Bluff and Oroville, and both teams losing badly to Shasta.
But Corning is a much stronger team than it was when it lost to Shasta seven weeks ago.
Several key players missed significant time throughout the season due to injuries and that forced other players to play out of position, Studer said. Now that most of the injuries have healed the team is more complete.
“Battling injuries earlier in the year kind of forced guys to move around a lot. I mean, a guy like (Zeke) Rodriguez has played anywhere from corner to inside backer to outside backer and (Tyler) Price has kind of done the same. (Dennis) Womack has played on the line and at linebacker,” he said. “I think the more those guys have had to play different positions to compensate for injured players, the better understanding they’ve had of the overall defensive scheme.”
That understand has shown up during league play as most points scored against the Cardinals during its last four games came in garbage time, Studer said.
Quarterback and starting corner Ryan Holland said the team had some good practices and knows what it needs to do on offense and defensive to win.
“It’s exciting,” Holland said. “Everyone’s pretty up for this game. We’ve had a couple weeks of good practices and good games. Everyone’s getting healthy and everybody is pretty excited about it.”
