With Arizona-bound running back Tony Ellison out, Josh Neal and Marc Ellis come to the rescue in a wild road win of Northern California powers.
John Neal threw for 280 yards and four scores and rushed for another, leading Granite Bay to a wild 39-35 win at Pittsburg on Friday.
File photo by John Downey
First, their star running back and two way star
Tony Ellison was lost for the game midway through the first quarter.
Then there was
Harris Ross, who two weeks ago rushed for a North Coast Section record 464 yards and seven touchdowns in a game. He might have been better on Friday.
Mark Ellis caught 12 passes for 177 yards
and two touchdowns, including the game-
winner for Granite Bay.
File photo by Gary Jones
But the
Granite Bay (Calif.) Grizzlies aren't the defending state Division I Bowl champions without displaying a little resolve.
That's what they did Friday night in a wild, entertaining and determined 39-35 nonleague win at
Pittsburg and its refurbished stadium.
Granite Bay entered No. 8 in the
MaxPreps Northern California Top 25 and Pittsburg was No. 17.
Senior quarterback
Josh Neal threw for 280 yards and four scores and run in another to offset another tremendous performance by Ross, who rushed for 297 yards and three touchdowns. Ross also caught a long touchdown pass.
Neal completed his fourth TD pass, a 26-yard toss to
Marc Ellis (12 catches, 177 yards) with 5:15 left for what proved to be the winning score for the Grizzlies (3-1), who went on a 12-game win streak last season after losing to Pittsburg.
Ellison had given his team an early 13-6 lead on a 61-yard run and 59-yard pass from Neal, but he sustained an apparent knee injury midway through the first quarter and did not return.
Harris Ross kept up his end of the deal
with 297 rushing yards while scoring four
touchdowns for Pittsburg.
File photo by Dennis Lee
The Pirates, who first scored on a 30-yard pass from
Armani Levias to Ross, closed to 13-9 on a 46-yard field goal by
Antonio Saldana and then took a 16-13 lead on a 74-yard fumble return by
Shurod Thompson with 8:32 left in the half.
Neal fired touchdown passes of 15 yards to
Dylan Keeney and 32 yards to Ellis, sandwiched between a 66-yard TD run from Ross, to give the Grizzlies a 25-22 lead midway through the third quarter.
Ross came right back with a 58-yard TD scamper to give Pittsburg back the lead 29-25 with 3:47 left in the third.
Neal, as he did all night, responded with a 1-yard TD run for Granite Bay, and Ross answered with a 73-yard touchdown run before Neal and Ellis connected on the game-winner.
"I knew I was going to get the ball tonight," Ellis said. "Josh was great. Every ball was on target."
Pittsburg came into the game on a three-game win streak after a humbling opening-night loss at Analy (Sebastopol). Granite Bay, under new coach Skip Albano, who took over for Ernie Cooper in June. Cooper was the only head coach Granite Bay ever had.
