Original article by Enterprise-Record: https://www.chicoer.com/2019/11/02/butte-football-falls-at-american-river-14-7/

SACRAMENTO — Mistakes were the theme most of the warm Saturday afternoon for the Butte College football team in a tough road test at American River College, one of the perennial stalwarts in the state each year.

Butte and ARC both came in unbeaten in the NorCal Conference and ranked top five in the region, top 10 in the state heading into the battle for conference supremacy.

Due in part to miscues, mostly on offense, the Roadrunners missed out on the opportunity to grab a stranglehold on the conference and the NorCal region over a bitter playoff rival, falling to American River 14-7 in a hard-fought defensive battle in Sacramento.

"We made a lot of mistakes in terms of finishing plays," Butte head coach Rob Snelling said. "A lot of penalties; we had our opportunities."

Butte looks to bounce back next Saturday in Rocklin against Sierra, also ranked in both state top-25 polls.

"Right now we got to work on ourselves," Snelling said.

Butte (5-3, 2-1 NorCal) stalled multiple drives either because of committing penalties at inopportune times or failures to execute plays. The team's final offensive possession was a prime example of the offensive struggles that Butte dealt with.

Down 14-7 following a hold from its defense, Butte opened up at its own 19-yard line with about 5 minutes left in regulation. Led by Pleasant Valley High grad Kyle Lindquist at quarterback, Butte began to move the ball starting with a crucial first-down pass from Lindquist to Deonta McMahon to get inside ARC territory.

Lindquist's most productive wideout was Tariq Glenn (six catches, 59 yards). Glenn's final reception helped bring Butte down to inside the Beaver 30 with about 2 minutes left. Butte would reach the red zone a little later before ARC (6-2, 3-0) eventually stiffened up with a sack on Lindquist and a couple solid coverage plays on the backend. Down to its last opportunity on fourth down with under a minute left, Lindquist tried to sneak a slant pass into Marshal Brose, but the Beaver defense was hovered around the Red Bluff grad pretty tightly to break it up.

"It's unfortunate that the offense couldn't get it going," said Cameron Alfaro, a Butte sophomore defensive back and former Chico High Panther.

Alfaro collected a game-high 12 tackles to help give the Butte offense as many chances as possible, while holding ARC scoreless in the second half. Alfaro's backfield tackle early in the fourth quarter forced ARC into a field goal attempt, which it hooked to come away with no points and turn it back over to the offense.

"Defense was balling," Alfaro said. "We showed on the field that we can play with any team. We beat ourselves today."

On the ensuing possession after the missed field goal, Butte committed its eighth penalty, had a ball underthrown and batted down and failed to convert on fourth-and-three, all on one possession. The fourth and short play was a pass by Lindquist thrown a little behind former PV Viking tight end Salomon Navarro with the attempt falling to the turf for an incomplete pass.

Butte's one touchdown-scoring possession was the quickest of the day when late in the second quarter immediately following an ARC score, the Roadrunners answered in a mere 26 seconds to cut the deficit in half to 14-7.

The scoring play was a laser from Lindquist to Brose on an 18-yard post in traffic that the former Northern Section quarterback held onto to secure the touchdown with eight seconds left in the first half.

Brose finished with four catches for 61 yards, while his former high school teammate Conner McKenzie aided the attack with three receptions for 20 yards. McKenzie should have had at least four catches, but his wide-open drop on third down around the Butte 30 in the third quarter led to one of many failures to fully ignite the Butte offensive machine all day.

"One (drop) is too many," Snelling said. "There were times when (American River) did a good job on the pass rush, there were times when we didn't finish some plays (with) our hands on the ball. Those are plays you have to make."

Original article by Enterprise-Record: https://www.chicoer.com/2019/11/02/butte-football-falls-at-american-river-14-7/