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Mistakes doom Dawgs
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Visiting Weston Ranch made big play after big play Thursday night in its 41-6 Valley Oak League varsity football win against Ceres High School.

The Bulldogs certainly didn't help themselves by committing a season-high 10 penalties, including a crucial illegal substitution infraction that kept the Cougars' opening drive alive. Weston Ranch tailback Jajuan Rawlins scored three plays later on a long run.

"We expected to do better," Ceres coach Brett Johnson said. "We just made too many mistakes. They didn't."

The Cougars improved to 1-2 in the VOL.

The Bulldogs remained at the bottom of the conference standings (0-3).

"They play hard," Johnson said. "We just have to be more disciplined. One of these games we're going to put everything together. And scare the heck out of somebody."

Ceres struggled on offense as it punted seven times.

The Bulldogs totaled 195 yards, including 132 rushing on 35 carries.

Marcus Hilgen, Matt Smith and Zack Atchison ran for 61, 40 and 28 yards, respectively.

Making his first start at quarterback, junior Johnny Clark completed 4 of 16 passes for 63 yards with one touchdown (Brandon Avila) and an interception (Bryan Thompson).

Martino Bertolotti, Hilgen and Rajdeep Singh had receptions of 34, 12 and 7 yards.

The Bulldogs yielded 361 yards of offense.

Weston Ranch gained 180 yards on the ground.

Jajuan Rawlins ran for 81 yards and a score on 11 carries.

Jeremiah Campos added a rushing TD.

Quarterback Josh Bowen completed 8 of 11 passes for 181 yards and three touchdowns (Rawlins, Chris Durante and Londell Anderson).

Hilgen made a game-high 13 tackles for the Bulldogs.

Ceres High fell behind 34-0 in the first half.

Weston Ranch scored all five of its touchdowns on plays of 11 yards or more.

Rawlins broke loose for a 47-yard run, and Bowen tossed TD passes of 11 and 54 yards to Anderson and Durante in the opening quarter.

In the second quarter, Bryan Thompson returned a Clark interception 65 yards for a touchdown and Rawlins hauled in a 25-yard scoring strike from Bowen.

Campos' 1-yard TD run gave the Cougars a 41-0 lead in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs prevented the shutout when Clark connected with Avila for an 11-yard TD strike with 34.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Weston Ranch lost its first two VOL games by a combined 16 points to front-runners Oakdale and Manteca.

Host Ceres bore the brunt of the Cougars' anger.

"We took out our frustration on them," Weston Ranch coach Steven Jackson said. "We were (ticked off)."

Sierra (2-1) will host Ceres High in a VOL homecoming game on Friday at 7 p.m. The cost for tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for students and $4 for children.