OROVILLE >> Butte View League play began Friday night, and the Corning High School football team’s offense ran for 336 yards in the first half and 422 total in the Cardinals’ 36-0 win against Oroville High School.

The Cardinals used five plays to score twice in the first seven minutes and stopped the Tigers on three straight runs, before a rushing TD with 2:25 remaining in the first quarter gave Corning a 20-0 lead. This is when Cardinals head coach John Studer felt the game’s momentum had shifted into his team’s hands.

“Our guys were playing hard, but they weren’t playing super smart,” Studer said. “We had some checks and stuff that they were supposed to do, and they weren’t responding. I think they were amped up and trying to play backyard football as opposed to disciplined football.

“I called a timeout early, settled them down, and after that, I think things went as planned. The message was ‘quit playing backyard football and let’s play disciplined.’”

Eight different Cardinals rushers combined on all five TD drives, led by Kaleb Flournoy’s three carries for 95 yards and three TDs. After a 60-yard TD run by Colt Dagorret on the Cardinals’ second play from scrimmage, Flournoy had his longest run of the day — a 65-yard rushing TD with 4:33 left in the first quarter.

Dagorret finished with five carries for 94 yards and one TD.

Flournoy scored a second TD with 2:25 left in the first quarter from 10 yards away, and added a third with 8:19 left in the second quarter on a 20-yard run to give the Cardinals a 27-0 lead.

Blake Ward, the third Cardinals rusher with 50-or-more yards, gave the Cardinals a 34-0 lead entering halftime when he capped a four-play, 40-yard drive with a 3-yard TD run. Ward finished with six carries for 83 yards and a TD.

In the second half, Oroville’s defense was able to limit the Cardinals’ rushing attack, cutting down on chunk plays by stacking the line of scrimmage and holding the edge. However, its offense could not keep up and overcome the strong first half by the Cardinals.

After a Corning punt that downed the Tigers’ offense at their own 1-yard line, Oroville running back Evan Beall ran to his left on a pitch, but Dagorret and Antonio Espinoza chased him down and combined for the safety to give the Cardinals a 36-0 lead with 7:55 left in the fourth quarter. The safety was the lone score for either team in the second half.

Oroville’s offense was limited to 60 yards of offense in the first half and 25 yards in the second half. Beall led the Tigers with 18 carries for 51 yards, and quarterback Ayden Morales completed 2-of-15 passes for 25 yards and three interceptions.

“We’re just not consistent on both sides of the ball,” Oroville head coach Rick Villanueva said. “We get a couple of good stops, a couple good runs, but we’re just not able to put nothing together. That’s just lack of experience. That’s where we’re at.”

The Tigers were outnumbered 35-15 in players, and both Villanueva and Studer mentioned they felt that factored in. Villanueva mentioned how in previous games the Tigers have competed the first quarter or two, but simply get tired due to lack of substitutions available.

“I’m proud of my guys, and I’m proud of Oroville,” Studer said. “They have a really small number of kids, but it would have been really easy for them not to fight. It was their homecoming, and we’ve got them outnumbered 2-1. Proud of those guys and glad those guys are sticking it out for their coaches and teammates. We’ve been that team during the covid years and only had 18 guys suited, and it’s brutal. Guys don’t ever get to come off the field, it’s hard to coach them, so hats off to those guys for fighting.”

Corning (2-4, 1-0 BVL) will look to keep its momentum going when it hosts Live Oak at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Oroville (0-6, 0-1 BVL) will look to bounce back when the Tigers travel to Gridley at 7:30 p.m. Friday.