BEAR RIVER VS ESCALON

Bear River's two QB offense played well in the first half led by David O'Brien's feet and Jason Voter in the air. The Bruins defense dominated the line of scrimmage in their 14-7 win over Escalon coming out of their bye week.

Bear River scored at the 9:18 mark on their opening drive when Jason voter to John Voter from the 27 yard line. Ben Olena's kick was no good for a 6-0 Bruin lead.

On the Bruins second possession the Bruins QB Obrien was sent to bench due to a left arm injury after leading the offense to a first and goal at the two. A series of penalties gave BR a 3rd and goal from the 37 yard line. Bruin QB Voter threw an errant pass which was picked off at the 2:17 mark in second. But again the defense made the needed stop.

Bear River 6 and Escalon 0 at the end of first quarter. 

Bear River safety Dave Mastrella intercepted an Escalon pass at the 11:24 mark in the second quarter which led to another John Voter touchdown from the two yard line.  Moving the score to 12-0 Bruins with 6:53 to play in the half. The Bruins went for a two point conversion where O'Brien threw a strike from the 23 yard line to O'Lena after multiple Bear River penalties moved the try back from the three yard line. 

Escalon looked as if they were poised to score their first touchdown of the contest when BR defensive lineman Jimmy Vaughn made two key stops inside the Bruin 10 yard line with less than 2 minutes to play in the half. Each team had one additional opportunity to score before intermission but as the midway horn sounded it was the Bruins that held a 14-0 lead. 

The Bruins offense sputtered in the third quarter as BR's wildcat QB O'brien remained on the sidelines. 

Escalon got on the board off a Jason Voter pick 6 with nine minutes to play in the game. The interception was Voter's third of the game. 

The Fourth quarter was not any better for the host team as their offensive whoas of not being able to run the ball continued.  Escalon on the other had took the ball from their own 30 yard line and marched down the field to the BR 20 but a series of penalties moved them back to the 50. Followed by a QB sack by Vaughn pushed Escalon back another 6 which took the wind out of the visitors sails. 

The Bruins took over on downs with 1:41 to but did not pick up a first down. Escalon got the ball with 19 seconds on their own 20. They got off a couple of plays but the clock ran out. 

The Bruins travel to Eureka next Friday where they will take on the Loggers. 

LAKE ALPINE CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 2014

The fishing was slow but the scenery as you can see was worth the effort.

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING - CHANGE SETTINGS

If you have ever "Liked" or have friends who have "Liked" a page then you are being targeted by Facebook's advertising. If you get irritated by those advertisements, there is something you can do about it. Written below is a further explanation of how Facebook uses your personal data to target your advertisements. But first here is how you put a spot to the company which has a market cap of over 200 million. 

In your profile, click the upside-down triangle in the upper-right corner and then the "Settings" button.

Click on the "Ads" tab. The two options here are easy to switch and very powerful. For each one, click the "Edit" button and then "No one" instead of "Friends."

That's not hard, but before I sign off let me just give you a quick explanation of what "Ads and Friends" is really about. Facebook claims that it "doesn't sell your information to advertisers," but what it does do is put you in a group that the advertiser can browse.

If you and a friend a hobby, then Facebook will take note of that. If you mention a product or company advertising on Facebook, it will probably put it next to an advertisement that your friend will see. It's basically a testimonial, but not one you might want to make.

Happy scrolling!

CALIFORNIA DROUGHT IMPACTS TROUT

Over Labor Day weekend I spent 9 hours fishing on two of California's watersheds. Neither of which looked healthy. Both were wrought with algae and very little signs of fish. While there were frogs and small fish I did not see anything above 3 inches.

Fish not only need water to thrive but the water also needs to be relatively cool. The Water temp was 75 degrees just above Lake Clementine while the air temp was 101. 

The other fishery which I fished was a bit better though I did catch two small trout. The real issue here is not one which man can fix nor will adding additional dams. The real issue at had is the lack of rain and snow in the mountains. Recently there was some discussion about Lake Tahoe only producing 65 cubic feet Per second (CFS). The Little Truckee is not flowing nor is Prosser creek. There was a group men and women from the Truckee Chapter of Trout Unlimited who worked hand in hand with the California Fish and Game catching trout with nets and then relocating them to the main river. 

As one can see when analyzing the images above that the past three years the lack of water has been accelerated. The lack of rain fall is hard on wildlife but with out a healthy river our food chain begins to break down. There are no clear answers other than conservation. 

BEAR RIVER FOOTBALL FALLS IN OPENER

The Bear River Bruin football team put up a great fight in the back and forth contest on Friday night at Bear River High School when they hosted the Pacheco Panthers who drove 160 mile for the game. but in the end the bigger, faster and more experienced visiting team won 35-29.

The Bruins had a shot late in the game but quarterback Austin Smith had very little time to find a receiver as the Panthers blitzed. Smith who played clean all game was picked as he attempted to thrown the ball to the lone receiver who was being double teamed as he ran a fly route.

In early action the Bruins jumped out to an early lead on a TD pass from Smith to Travis Whitehead which capped a 97 yard very impressive drive. Then BR added another score by John Voter who punched it in from the 1 to move the score to 14-0. The Panthers top scorer from 2013 Frank Ginda (6'2" 227lbs) caught a pass and and ran 47 yards to put Pacheco on the board. Smith then answered with another TD toss, this time to Dave Mastrella to give the Bruins a 22-8 lead with just over 3 min to play in the half. Pacheco went right back to their big man Ginda who again delivered on a 61 yard score as time ran down going into the half. The halftime score was 22-15 BR.

Coming out of the locker room the Panthers drover down the field on their firth possession to knot the score at 22 all. Pacheco followed up with another score for a 29-22 lead. Smith followed up by firing a strike to Ryan Wagner with 9:04 to play in the game to once again knot the score at 29-29.  The Panthers proceeded to drive the ball down the field and score but was called back from the 50 as there was a holding call. that mishap didn't slow the Panthers down as they ate up the yards, Bear River's timeouts as well as the clock on way to the games final score.

Smith had a very good showing as he was efficient and made good reads in the pocket  in his season debut in his senior season. Kyle Uclaray looked quick out of the back field and at times the defense pressured the the Panthers offense but late in the game they just couldn't get a stop when they needed it.

The Bruins take to the field again on Friday night when they host Union Mine,

JV
Bear River JV team also fell in their season opener 15-0.

NEVADA COUNTY SCOOPER - WHO ARE THEY?

On August 24th I posed a question to the 3,394 members of the Nevada County News and Information Facebook group for-which I'm an administrator. The question asked was, if the The Nevada County Scooper should be allowed to post to the group? The members gave feedback and it was all positive. The reason I was motivated to question the group is due to a few of their post being flagged. Click here to read what they wrote the following day about the event. They were "Swift" in getting the story out.

The idea of the NC Scooper is classic. The writing is fun, funny, smart and the stories seem to be based in and around current Nevada County events, people or news stories. The team of writers have crazy names along with what look to be real Facebook pages.

There are two names that I think are real. The first is Giovanni Paredes who's bio says he lives in Nevada County, and has other magical powers besides weather forecasting. He also hosts the extremely popular Nevada County Weather website. The other is the popular cartoonist RL Crabb whose work can be seen in The Union Newspaper. But I have no idea who these other very creative thinkers are.

Publisher of The Nevada County Scooper is Randall Finkelstein (Fink) of Penn Valley and Louis LaPlante (Lou) of North San Juan is the President.

On the "Companies" Facebook page it gives the history of the Scooper. See Below.

About
Throughout its 92 year history the Scooper, as it is affectionately called by locals, has striven to provide its citizens with the most up to date news.
Mission To provide a news source "for the rest of us."

DescriptionAbout the Nevada County Scooper

The Nevada County Scooper was founded in 1914 by Fred Bloomfield III, esq. and his wife Vinalla A. Bloomfield.

Throughout its 92 year history the Scooper, as its affectionately called by locals, has striven to provide it’s citizens with the most up to date and hard-hitting journalism the area has ever witnessed.

As the recipient of many, many awards, the Scooper recently ran out of wall space in it’s Penn Valley office after receiving a Gold record from long time supporter and Nevada County Scooper reader Alice Cooper.

Early History
In its early days the Nevada County Scooper was published from downtown Grass Valley and was the chief competitor to another, to be unnamed, local newspaper. During this time, the Scooper did not possess a printing press, nor the courage to borrow one. So the Scooper relied solely on shouting at people on the street to circulate the news. Later in the 1930s, the Scooper expanded its shouting service to Nevada City, frequently paying vagrants to assault citizens with news. Mr Bloomfield was a firm believer in enlightened self interest and believed that he was serving both the community and the paper’s interests.

Middle History
In 1949, after 17 long years of World War II, the Scooper finally purchased a printing press. However due the untimely death of Mr. Bloomfield’s wife in a bizarre gardening accident, he decided to sell his holdings in the newspaper to the Hearst Corporation for an undisclosed sum. The monies from this transaction were used for various failed housing developments around Nevada County including the infamous “homes over Wolf Creek” project.

Fresh History
After over 94 years of Hearst Corporation operation, the company sold the Scooper and its assets to former kid genius Randall “Fink” Finkelstein. Fink immediately set out to build a World Class local newspaper, as he put it, “for the rest of us, in Nevada County. Maybe Sierra County too if I get up there.” His goal of bringing worldly worldliness and his insightful blog commentary to Nevada County is first and foremost. Unless there’s money to be made in Sierra City. Then he will include them as well.

The Future
Fink hopes one day to put everyone in a flying car. Lou is hoping to retire to Cedar Ridge.

Thank you Fink and Lou for your contributions to this place we call home. You have shed a different light on the community.

BEAR RIVER JUNIOR BRUINS FOOTBALL OFF TO SLOW START

The Bear River Junior Bruins have started the 2014 season a bit slow as they have collectively (Junior Peewee, Peewee, Junior Midget and Midget) fallen to a 0-8 after two games. Next weekend (8/6) the BRJB program will look to rebound as they host their first home games of the season versus the Yuba City Junior Honkers.

The BRJB's teams have scored at total of 33 points while giving up 200. While this is a very large gap most of the points were given up in week one when they traveled to San Joaquin. SJ currently holds an overall record of 8-0 while posting 279 total points by their four teams. The SJ organization leads both the North and South divisions of the Sierra Valley Football in scoring.

In Week two BR traveled to Antelope who holds a 7-1 overall record as well as the top spot in all four levels of play in the Southern division.  Marysville who has a 1-7 record was the only team to defeat Antelope. Which was in the Midget division by a score of 22-19 in week one.

The BRJB's coaches will look to make the best of their week three bye to prepare for their next opponent Yuba City. YC holds a win loss record of 4-4  and has split contests with Nevada Union as well as perennial power Elk Grove.