West Park handles Roseville, 35-16

After a disappointing week one loss to Whitney, West Park High's varsity football team has won two straight games, including Friday's 35-16 win over Roseville. The Panthers played a good game defensively, holding Roseville to only two scores, while the Tigers made numerous mistakes that made things harder for themselves. Trailing 11-8 in the second quarter, the Tigers got the ball with 4 ½ minutes to play in which they could have scored to take the lead or at least run the clock out but they could do neither. On first-and-10 at their own 35-yard line with 3:20 to play, the Tigers were called for an 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty that pushed the ball back to the 20. A false start penalty followed, and after a short run, West Park sacked Roseville quarterback Hunter Felkins, which forced a third-and-28 situation. Brycen Sanders had a nice gain but came up short of the first down, but worst yet ran out of bounds, which stopped the clock, giving West Park more time to score. Roseville had to punt and West Park got the ball with 1:42 to play at their own 42-yard line. West Park quarterback Drew Browning ended the half with a 30-yard pitch-and-catch to Isaiah King, which put West Park in front 18-8. To start the second half, on the very first play Roseville had another unsportsmanlike penalty that pushed the ball back to their own 10-yard line. Felkins was sacked on the next play which put the ball at the one-yard line. A punt gave the ball to West Park at the Roseville 36-yard line. West Park ended the drive with a two-yard touchdown run from Browning which gave the Panthers a 25-8 lead. Those two possessions hurt the Tigers more than anything. They also had various other penalties, missed blocks and mistakes which hurt them from start to finish. "We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes and we learned the hard way from them," Roseville coach Adam Reinking said. "We had a series of mental mistakes that allowed West Park to extend the lead. Our mistakes put us behind the chains chasing our own tails and right now we're not good enough to get out of second-and-long situations against good teams. We're just trying to figure out how to get out of our own way. If we didn't make the mistakes we made, I feel like it could have been a one-score game in the fourth quarter. We're beating ourselves right now." On the West Park side, the Panthers' defense, led by middle linebacker Jesiah Brewer, made things tough on Roseville. Brewer had three sacks and all night long the Panthers pressure had Felkins on the run. "Jesiah was running over people all night long," West Park coach Jason Tenner said. "He was impressive. "Ronnie Eskridge was great on offense, defense and special teams. He returned two kicks for touchdowns, but both were called back on penalties. "Drew also ran the ball very well for us. He's a very good athlete who's tough and runs hard. His 76-yard touchdown run put the game away. The offensive line created some good holes for him." West Park opened the scoring on the game's opening drive when Declan Shindelbower scored on a five-yard run. A two-point conversion run by Mason McLean gave the Panthers an 8-0 lead. Roseville tied the game by also scoring on their first possession. Felkins led the team down the field before Mateo Martinez scored on a 10-yard run. Felkins then threw to Jude Navarro for the two-point conversion to tie the game. West Park opened the second quarter with a 44-yard field goal from Jack McAvoy before the two touchdowns that opened up the game. Roseville's second touchdown late in the third quarter, a three-yard run from Navarro followed by the conversion from Martinez tightened the score to 25-16. West Park tacked on 10 more points in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard field goal from McAvoy followed by a 76-yard run from Browning for the final touchdown. "We've still got some things we've got to clean up," Tenner said. "We had 15 penalties for 170 yards. That's way too many." West Park (2-1) plays at Lincoln of Stockton Friday. Meanwhile, Roseville (2-1) plays host to Woodcreek. "There were some good things," Reinking said. "We held them to 91 yards passing and they had 240 yards rushing, but 76 of that was on one play. West Park made less mistakes then we did, so give them credit. "Woodcreek is probably the best team we're going to play this season. We need to worry about ourselves. We need to not make so many mistakes and we to not beat ourselves. If we do that and get beat by a better team, that's OK. "We just need to be good at running our basic stuff. To the credit of the team, they've worked extremely hard in correcting flaws since the first week and we've gotten a lot better. We've been unfortunate that our mistakes have come when it's timely and it hurts. Our margin of error is very slim."