Bulldogs, Trojans split basketball games

Folsom High's basketball teams hosted Oak Ridge on Friday night and the varsity boys' defeated Oak Ridge, 85-63, while the Oak Ridge girls got the best of Folsom, 54-44. With the wins, the Sierra Foothill League-leading Bulldogs and Trojans finished off the first half of league play with perfect 6-0 records. Oak Ridge, 54, Folsom 44 Oak Ridge came out ready to play and quickly opened up a 8-0 lead on the Bulldogs. In a game in which they won by 10 points, that hurt Folsom. Moreso, through the first 6:15 of the game, Oak Ridge had opened up a 15-3 lead. Vanessa Johnson scored all nine of her points in the first quarter. By halftime, however, Folsom had fought back and tied the game at 25. Rachel Mauch hit two three-pointers in the second quarter, while Laney Warrington made two field goals to lead the Bulldogs. In the second half, Oak Ridge came out and had another good quarter, out-scoring the Bulldogs by 10, 23-13, which Folsom couldn't cut into but by one point in the fourth quarter. Leah Harris scored 15 of her game-high 20 points in the third quarter. Johnson finished with nine and Sophia Ross scored eight. "I thought we played quite competitively," Folsom High coach Lynn Wolking said. "The difference in the game was the first two minutes of the game and the first two minutes of the second half. They probably outscored us by 20 in those four minutes. Our team fought, though. We are improving steadily. "Give credit to Oak Ridge, as their press was effective in slowing us down, and when we left Leah Harris open she made us pay. "We will continue to make positive strides. I love our team." Folsom's Racquel Mauch and Mallory Goldsby both scored nine points to lead the team. Jayden Hill and Belle Marshall scored seven, while Warrington and Lily Reed scored six. "Our first quarter was probably our best quarter," Oak Ridge coach Briana Dulgar said. "We came out meaning business and playing hard. It was a roller coaster type of game. Obviously, we need to work on our consistency in terms of playing four quarters. Our girls played with a lot of heart and a lot of intensity. At the end of the game, we took care of business and that was nice too." Folsom 85, Oak Ridge 63 Folsom jumped all over the Trojans in the first quarter, leading by 13, 19-6, and increased the lead to 22 by halftime, 43-20. Using their standard pressing defense and pushing the ball at every opportunity, the Bulldogs turned the game into a track meet and won going away. In leading the Sierra Foothill League with a 6-0 record at the midpoint of the league season, the Bulldogs have won all six games by double-digits. The closest game was the Bulldogs 17-point win over Jesuit on Wednesday. "I don't know if I've ever beat every league opponent by double-digits in a round of league play," Folsom coach Mike Wall said. "We played a great half in every game. Some of those games it wasn't until the second half, but we played a great half and a good half in every one of those games. I can't help but be happy. "Tonight we played as good of a first half as we could have expected. We just came out really sharp in the first quarter and dug into them right away. The defensive energy to start the game was really good and when we play like that we really play well. It was a feeding frenzy." Parks Weaver led the Bulldogs with 19 points, while Jack Shull scored 16. Jovan Dulay and Alec Day also hit double digits, as Dulay scored 15 and Day finished with 10. Gavyn Hoenig had the best game of anyone, as the Trojan senior scored 33 points and was pretty much unstoppable. Lucas Cutler added 11 points in the loss.