Victory a salve for devastated California town

PARADISE, CALIF. >> It’s hard to recognize Paradise.

It is heaps of melted metal. It is scorched pine trees. It is a place where things used to be, before a fire destroyed nearly 19,000 structures and killed 86 people last November.

But on Aug. 23, Paradise looked like home again. Thousands of people filled the stands at Om Wraith Field at Paradise High School — which was spared from the flames — to watch the depleted football team play its first game since losing everything.

Girls wore ribbons in their hair and glitter on their faces. Boys wore jerseys with the sleeves rolled up. People stood in line to order hot dogs at the concession stand, only to be given a paper plate with a bun and told to walk around the corner and pick one off the grill.

“I recognize this,” 43-year-old Shannon Stoneman said as she looked around faces she had not seen in nearly 10 months.

Stoneman lost her home, her grocery store, her gas station, her favorite restaurant, and everything else she knew in the fire. She had to move more than 130 miles away, putting her two teenage daughters into another school. But when she heard about the Paradise High School football team playing again, she took the day off from work and came back to watch.

“Our hearts are here, even if our homes aren’t,” she said.

Senior running back Lukas Hartley could feel the pressure. In the first quarter, shortly after the team had entered the field through the home stands while Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” played on the speakers, he threw up on the field as his emotions got the best of him. He sat out two plays, before returning and running over a defender to score a touchdown.

Paradise was up 7-0 when they started their second possession. Senior wide receiver Mason Cowan lined up to the right side of the field and noticed the other team was not looking at him. He signaled to quarterback Danny Bettencourt, who hit with a 64yard touchdown pass and the rout was on. Paradise would win the game 42-0.

RICH PEDRONCELLI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Players and fans of Paradise High School mill on the field after defeating Williams High School, 42-0, in Paradise, Calif., on Aug. 23.