The Weed Cougars won three more games than they did a year ago, but fell one victory short of earning a spot in the Northern Section Division IV playoffs.
Weed’s last chance for a postseason spot ended with a 41-13 loss to Burney Friday night in Weed on Senior Night.
The game that could have put the Cougars over the top was a 32-26 loss to Etna Oct 23 in Etna.
While Weed finished 1-5 in league and 4-6 overall, Etna finished 2-4 in league and 4-6 overall and earned a No. 6 seed into the playoffs.
“We had three more wins than last year and got a lot of things done,” said first-year Cougar head coach Erik Johnson. “We had a good time. It was a good experience. It was disappointing that we had our destiny in our own hands and couldn’t get it done. We have to learn how to close. But it was a good year. The kids are great and the staff was good. Hopefully we’ll get things rolling. We want to be one of those teams that when you see us on your schedule you say, ‘Those guys are tough.’”
Many of the Cougars’ starters on offense will return next year, and Johnson feels the focus will be on strengthening the defense.
Senior Travis Andrews caught a 27 yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Cody Beam for Weed’s first score Friday night.
Their other score came late in the fourth quarter when junior Micah White took a handoff, faked a reverse and completed a touchdown pass to senior Robert West.
Modoc won the SCL with a 6-0 record, followed by Fall River at 5-1, Burney at 4-2, Etna and Chester at 2-4, and Weed and Los Molinos at 1-5.
This year was a learning experience for Weed’s JV team, which was built mostly with freshman.
Johnson said the Cougars will be relying next year mostly on this year’s juniors.
Seniors on this fall's Cougar football, volleyball and soccer rosters, along with their parents, were recognized before Friday night's game.
Seniors on the football team were Travis Andrews, Robert Aquila, Travis Greene, Brian Hoy, Trevor Lemos, Codey Lewis, Carlos Nava, Norman Peterson and Robert "Big Cat" West.
Volleyball seniors recognized were Mindi Chandler, Amanda Greene, Jessica Morgan and Sierra Skeen.
Seniors from the soccer team were Nicolette Neel and Zach Schneider.
Weed, Calif. —
