SACRAMENTO – Shasta College's football team lost to host American River College 56-7 Saturday in the NorCal Conference opener to suffer its fourth straight loss.

The Beavers scored on eight straight possessions to pull away from the Knights and outgained them by more than 400 yards, including 266-12 on the ground.

"ARC has a tremendous football team," Shasta College head coach Bryon Hamilton said. "We prepared well during the week but we just weren't able to get anything going on offense or make stops on defense."

American River scored on a 4-yard pass from Kenneth Lueth to Seth Bozzi and recovered the ensuing onside kick. Five plays later, Lueth threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Robert Freeman for two scores in less than 3 minutes.

Shasta's 12-play drive stalled at the ARC 32 and the Beavers capitalized with a third Lueth scoring toss, this one to Zoltan Holmly for 38 yards. Shasta trailed 28-0 at half and gave up three rushing touchdowns and a fourth Lueth touchdown pass in the second half. Jaylen Thomas' 1-yard run was the lone time the Knights reached the end zone.

Lueth threw for 248 yards and four scores and the Beavers had 11 different players record a rushing attempt.

Eli Wehbey completed 15 of 29 passes for 129 and an interception. Thomas was the leading rusher for the Knights with 22 yards and a score on seven carries and added 28 receiving yards on two catches. Jahari Johnson hauled in three passes for 36 yards and Randy Gibson caught three passes for 35 yards.

Gavin Skerik racked up 10 tackles to lead the Shasta defense, Robert Jones had eight tackles and Javon Edwards pitched in with seven tackles. Osirus Mitchell-Peoples had three tackles, including two for a loss.

"We are a young team and we just need to continue to work hard and stay positive," Hamilton said. "We are looking forward to hosting Sierra this week at home."

Shasta (0-1 NorCal, 1-5) hosts Sierra College Saturday at 6 p.m.

STANDINGS
Team NorCal, Overall
American River 1-0, 5-1
Butte 1-0, 5-1
Sierra 1-0, 4-2
Feather River 0-1, 1-5
Santa Rosa 0-1, 1-5
Shasta 0-1, 1-5