By Paul Boerger
With quarterback Travis Newman sacked 8 times and the Eagles unable to stop a couple of timely Butte passes, College of the Siskiyous fell to Butte 9-7 in a hard fought defensive game.
Running back Alex Gaston found himself dropped behind the line of scrimmage numerous times before breaking through for a 65 yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
Gaston took the ball on a sweep left, broke though the line and raced past the secondary for the score. He gained 107 yards for the day on 23 carries.
The first quarter played to a 0-0 tie as neither team could move the ball with any consistency.
Butte scored in the second half on a pass play, making it 6-0 when the kick failed.
The third quarter opened with a COS interception with 14:52 to play, but the Eagles gave the ball back on an interception on the next play.
Butte scored on a field goal set up by a couple of passing plays that put the game at 9-0. GastonÕs 65 yard touchdown run moved COS to within 3.
The 4th quarter saw neither team able to score as the COS defense did a fine job of containing ButteÕs huge offensive line.
The defensive nature of the game was highlighted by the 20 combined punts the teams were forced to kick.
The Eagles got the ball with 26 seconds left, but were unable to move up the field. Indicative of the EagleÕs troubles for the day, quarterback Newman was sacked on the last play of the game.
For the day, Newman completed 5 of 21 passes for 63 yards. Tay Proctor had the longest COS catch at 37 yards. Total yards for COS was 147, while Butte gained 297.
COS is a home again next week, playing Laney at 1 p.m. in Weed.
