Bobcats claw Bears 42-7 at home to stay undefeated in league play

Gonzales runs for two scores, throws another in win

PARADISE » The Paradise High School varsity football team, coming off an unwanted bye week, took care of visiting the Pierce High School Bears Friday night 42-7 at Om Wraith Field.

The Bears came into Friday night’s action unbeaten in Sacramento Valley league play.

After the Bobcats (5-1, 3-0 in league play) forced the visitors to punt after their opening possession, quarterback Braden Gonzalez scored on a 37-yard touchdown run to give Paradise an early 7-0 lead, following Aiden Luna‘s extra point.

Then on the first play of the second quarter, Gonzales hit Kyle Ricker on a 32yard touchdown pass that pushed the Bobcats’ lead to 14-0 following Luna‘s extra point.

And right before the end of the second quarter, Daquan Lamar-Simmons scored on a 3-yard run to give Paradise the 21-0 lead going into halftime.

That’s where the score stayed until late in the third quarter when Nathan Magpusao recovered a Bear fumble and returned it 50 yards for a score and a 28-0 lead.

The Bobcats were able to push the lead to 35-0 to open the fourth quarter on a 4-yard run by Gonzales. That touchdown run was set up by a big Lamar-Simmons run that put the Bobcats at the Pierce 4-yard line.

A Bears fumble at their own 19-yard line set up Brady Bettencourt’s 4-yard touchdown run with less than four minutes ago.

That gave Paradise the 42-0 lead and for the final four minutes, the game was played with a running clock.

The Bears scored with less than a minute to go and avoided the shutout.

With the loss, the Bears fell to 5-3 overall and suffered their first Sacramento Valley league and loss of the year and fell to 3-1.

The Bobcats now will turn their focus to Winters where they will travel to play the Warriors.

The Bears will host Durham next Friday night.