RED BLUFF >> The Las Plumas Thunderbirds’ return to the Northern Section Division II Football Playoffs proved short as they were eliminated by the Red Bluff Spartans, 42-0, on Friday night.

However, LP coach Tim Harless said that he hopes the Thunderbirds’ appearance in the playoffs will begin a new tradition — even following a tough year. He noted a 22-20 win over Live Oak that had to be forfeited and a 7-6 loss to Orland.

“I don’t know if my our guys really bounced back from (the Orland loss),” he said after the quarterfinal, “but today, they impressed me with their their effort and their physicality.”

The Thunderbirds, who finished the year 4-7, had trouble with the Spartans’ size and strength, particularly along the offensive and defensive lines.

“They kind of overwhelmed us a little bit with the run,” Harless said, noting the size and physicality of Spartan linemen Barrett Byrne (6-foot-6, 295 pounds) and Cadence Dial (6-3, 315). “They have some really big guys.

“Red Bluff’s got a really good chance of taking it (the section title). When you have guys like that on the O-line and D-line, you have a good chance to win football games.”

That was evident on the game’s opening drive, as the Spartans moved the ball 77 yards against the T-Birds’ defense, helped partly by a 20-yard run by Zach Shaver on a third-and-3 play from the Spartans 48. That set up a 32-yard touchdown pass from Kayden Leaf to Bryce Owens for the game’s first score at the 8:32 mark of the first quarter.

It was the first of Owens’ two touchdown catches on the night.

Harless said that the Spartans overwhelmed his team’s defense with their running game and then LP’s offense — and that same physicality prevented the T-birds from spreading out.

The T-birds were forced to punt on their opening drive, and the Spartans were poised to score on their next drive. Leaf broke off a 27-yard run, getting the ball to within the LP 5-yard line, but the T-birds forced a fumble that they recovered inside the end zone.

But the Spartans’ defense came up with a big play as they pressured LP quarterback Colton Rosauer into a throw that Shaver intercepted and returned 24 yards for a touchdown that made it 14-0 with 36.4 seconds to go in the opening quarter.

“We had a couple of big mistakes, like the pick-six was huge,” Harless said. “We were kind of stifling a little bit in our offense — it was kind of good on the beginning and then fell apart at the end.”

LP’s third drive ended in a sack by Owens on a third-and-9 play, setting up the Spartans’ third scoring drive of the half. Red Bluff moved the ball 70 yards in 2:11 and ended it with a 1-yard run by Shaver, who set up his touchdown run with a 38-yard run that put the ball at the LP 22.

That TD made it 21-0 with 7:41 to go.

The Spartans stuck to head coach Jacob Daricek’s plan of getting Leaf out of the game once he felt comfortable with it. His backup quarterback, Ashden Wehbey, was stellar in Leaf’s absence. After the Spartans forced the Thunderbirds to punt on the three-and-out to open the second half, Wehbey ran the Spartan offense at a high level.

He hit Owens on a 21-yard TD pass — on a play similar to the one Owens caught from Leaf in the first quarter — giving the hosts a 28-0 lead with 8:54 to go in the third quarter. A little more than three minutes later, Wehbey found Landon Kunau on a 24-yard TD pass with a perfectly thrown ball to make it 35-0.

Lucas Owens scored the game’s final touchdown on a 1-yard run with 2:48 to go in the third quarter. That touchdown was set up by another well-thrown ball by Wehbey to Eli Hohenberger, who caught at about the 5 and then tried reaching the ball over the goal line for the score. However, his knee hit the ground at the 1, setting up Owens’s score.

Harless was proud of his team for stepping up and playing against Eastern Athletic League competition in the playoffs.

“It’s a big ask. You know, in the BVL (Butte View League), we’re playing a lot of Division III teams. So when we come up here, we got to play at a different level. Hopefully, we can keep coming back every year and that part of our team can start getting used to playoffs.”

While the Thunderbirds are out, the Spartans will play at Foothill on Friday night. A victory would put them in the Northern Section championship game against Shasta High or Pleasant Valley.