Rough day for 49ers

Afterward, there was calm. The coaches conversed softly and the players took it in stride, sauntering to the locker room and then to a catered dinner of chicken wings. It all seemed too restrained, placid, like a switch had been flipped.

No longer was 49ers coach Ted Hoal blowing gaskets and screaming into his headset. No longer was defensive coordinator Tomas Rodriguez straining his vocal cords about missed assignments. Marker boards were no longer slammed, helmets no longer met the ground. The consternation and cussing, the visible venting that lasted all afternoon Saturday, was replaced by a simple break cheer moments after the scoreboard lights switched off immediately following the final whistle.

"Yuba on three ..."

And with that, the Yuba College football team's most frustrating, eye-opening, ego-checking day of the season was complete. Whether it be a fake punt, a gadget play or a basic downfield pass, visiting College of the Siskiyous found ways to stick it to the home team in a 47-23 victory.

"Not enough focus," said running back Juan Johnson, who lost a pair of fumbles. "We came in way too cocky and we made way too many mistakes."

His coach agrees. Huddled up at midfield Hoal lowered his decibel level and had a conversation with his players about responding, win or lose. He referred to the last week of practice, and how it was one of the worst in recent memory for the program.

"What we're looking for right now is how you guys respond, where is your maturity?" Hoal said postgame to his players. "Cause I can certainly tell you this — I don't think we're as good of a football team as you guys thought we were this week, but I don't think we're as a bad as a football team as I saw today ... let's eliminate drama and come back next week."

The 49ers' defense entered the game No. 1 in the state against the run. They were No. 3 against the pass. Their offense could screen-pass and up-the-gut run its way to enough points to top San Jose, West Valley and Sacramento City. So after moving to 3-0 by topping the Panthers, Yuba's response was to become lackadaisical in its preparation.

The downside of this started to manifest in the second quarter. On the first play after the teams flipped the field, Siskiyous quarterback Lewis Larson lateraled the ball to wideout Clay Cavender, who then fired an 81-yard touchdown pass to Xzavious Harrison. No need to worry about running into Yuba's run-stopping wall of lineman when the secondary bites on a trick-play like that.

"We knew going into it that they were really good on run defense and we had to do something to create big plays," Siskiyous coach Charlie Roche said. "That double pass was something we had in our arsenal and we just hadn't broken it out yet."

It tied the game at 7-7. The Eagles took the lead for good when punter Trevor Baum took off and turned a 4th-and-19 into a 74-yard scoring run. By halftime it was 21-10 after a 47-yard pass set up a 2-yard rushing score.

Three plays, one of which was of the traditional variety, is what keyed Yuba's undoing. Siskiyous turned the ball over five times on the afternoon, but the No. 17 team in the CCCAA Northern California Top 20 still found ways to continually circumvent No. 13 Yuba's best attempts.

The 49ers scored on their first possession after a huge game-opening kickoff return from Lurrell Johnson set up a 6-yard scoring run Jeremy Williams. After that easy-looking set of events, Yuba struggled. Quarterback Jon Garcia finished with 100 yards passing and threw a pick-6. No Yuba rusher hit triple digits.

The true highlight of the day for the 49ers came when defensive lineman Juan Castillo intercepted a batted ball and returned it for a touchdown. Yuba's other touchdown was a 5-yard run from Johnson after the 49ers capitalized on a late-game turnover.

Both were the types of plays that were commonplace over the first three weeks of the season, the kinds of efforts Hoal and his assistants would obviously like to see before the game has been decided.

"Lots of mental mistakes, and before you know it, you're not in the rhythm you want to be in," Hoal said. "Siskiyous, for whatever reason, was playing with what looked like a higher level of energy."