Defense sparks Shadow Ridge to win over Bonanza

With 3 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first quarter of Friday night’s Northwest League showdown between Bonanza and Shadow Ridge, running back Anthony Wheaton yelled to his offensive teammates on the sideline: “Let’s head to the locker room, the defense got this.”

By then, Stephen Zane had turned Shadow Ridge’s field into his own personal playground. The senior linebacker recovered two fumbles and returned them both for touchdowns of 87 and 31 yards, sparking the Mustangs to a 48-7 homecoming victory.

“It was a very important game, every conference game we play, very important,” said Zane, who finished with two solo tackles and two more assisted tackles before leaving the game in the second quarter with a hamstring injury. “It was a very disappointing loss last week to Palo, but we had to come back strong because it was a conference game. It meant so much to us.”

Shadow Ridge (5-2, 3-1 Northwest League) smothered the Bengals (2-5, 0-3) and limited them to 141 yards. Jake Daley registered a sack and a tackle for loss, while Christian Owens nabbed his fourth interception of the season.

Bengals quarterback Julio Montenegro accounted for 87 yards of total offense, throwing for 52 yards and running for another 35. Zion McGower scored Bonanza’s lone touchdown.

“Our defense has been playing really well the last couple weeks,” Shadow Ridge coach Travis Foster said. “With homecoming, you never really know what you’re going to get. Sometimes their mind is someplace else, but I think they kind of saw how excited the student body was about the game, and the lines for pre-sale tickets, and I think they got more excited as the week went on.”

Quarterback Kody Presser led the Mustangs with 104 total yards. He rushed for 54 yards and one touchdown on seven carries, and completed 2 of 3 pass attempts — both for touchdowns — for 50 yards.

Brennen Lyman hauled in a 16-yard touchdown for Shadow Ridge, while Brock Weisheim scored on a 34-yard reception.

“We can’t slip up in conference. We let one go last week and put ourselves in a tough spot,” Foster said. “This week was big, the kids responded really well. I think they know the situation that were in with the teams we’ve got coming up. This was a must-win for us.”