Despite suffering a 13-6 loss to crosstown rival Pleasant Valley High, the Chico High Panthers still remain in the third spot in Division II for the Week 9 edition of the Northern Section Prep Football Media Poll.
In the 46th annual Almond Bowl, the Vikings held off the Panthers in a defensive battle at University Stadium on the Chico State University campus. With the Vikings’ win, PV (8-0) stays atop the standings with 11 unanimous first place votes cast by media members from the Chico Enterprise-Record, Redding Record Searchlight, Marysville Appeal-Democrat, Action News Now, KRCR-TV and MaxPreps. First-place votes are worth five points, second-place votes are worth four points and so on with the results revealed Tuesday.
Taking second place with 42 points is Shasta High after the Wolves (8-1) came back to win over Foothill 42-35. Chico (6-2) kept its third place spot with 35 points. Chico will travel to Foothill (4-4) to face each other at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Enterprise and Paradise swapped places from last week’s results with Enterprise taking fourth and Paradise fifth. The Hornets (4-5) squeaked past Paradise (4-4) with a 63-62 overtime victory on the ridge.
Division III results remained the same with Orland (7-1) garnering nine first place votes to stay atop the standings. In second is West Valley (7-1), which grabbed the other two firsts, to come in with 46 points. Sutter (6-3) takes third with 33 points as Lassen and Anderson take fourth and fifth, respectively.
A D-III battle is set to take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday with No. 3 Sutter traveling to top-ranked Orland. The Trojans are coming off a 38-3 victory over Oroville at Harrison Stadium while the Huskies defeated Las Plumas 54-0. No. 2 West Valley (7-1) travels to No. 4 Lassen (4-4) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
In Divison IV, Winters held onto the top spot for a second-straight week after earning 10 first place votes, totaling 54 points. The Warriors (6-2) took down Live Oak for a 54-6 victory. Durham, which was the unanimous first place team up until suffering its first loss of the season to Winters two weeks ago, grabbed a 29-0 win over Willows to take second place with 44 points and one first place vote. Durham (7-1) will host Live Oak at 7 p.m. on Friday.
East Nicolaus took third place with 34 points and Colusa in fourth with 22 points. Trinity broke into the rankings, taking the fifth spot, after Pierce dropped out following a 15-6 loss to Colusa.
Fall River continued to keep its grasp on first place in the D-V results, taking all 11 first place votes after a 56-6 win over Weed. Portola remained in second with 44 points after defeating Maxwell 49-35. Maxwell dropped a spot from last week, sitting in fourth with 27 points as Biggs jumped into the third position with 28 points. Biggs grabbed a 76-27 win over Foresthill as running back Jake Garcia rushed for over 400 yards and six touchdowns to break the school’s 28-year-old regular season rushing record. Modoc remained in the fifth spot with 11 points to round out the Division V results.
Redding Christian once again took the unanimous first place position in Division VI or 8-man football. The Lions (7-0) are coming off their bye week as they take on Happy Camp at 7 p.m. on Friday. Big Valley came in second with 40 points after taking a 62-0 victory over Tulelake. Hayfork sits in the No. 3 spot with points as Mercy is in fourth with 21 points. Loyalton rounds out the top five with 13 points.
Connect with Sports Writer Sharon Martin at 896-7778.
