The game against Central Friday night started off a lot like a re-run of a bad movie for the Paso Robles High School varsity football team.

A near fumble on a punt return, followed by a Grizzlies interception and the Bearcats looked doomed to repeat the same mistakes they had made in their season opening game against Westlake, a 39-14 loss on Sept. 6.

But this time the Bearcats were able to fast forward through any more bad parts, and play out a very different ending. The interception was called back due to pass interference on the Grizzlies and the Bearcats continued their drive down field for what would be the first of six touchdowns on their way to a 44-7 victory.

“What we did this week –– we finished,” said Paso Robles coach Rich Schimke. “We finished what we started, played four quarters and finished, finished, finished.”

With the Westlake game now permanently erased from their memories, the Bearcats focused on drive after drive, scoring three of their six touchdowns in the first half to take a 21-0 lead over the Grizzlies.

After quarterback Thomas Bernal completed two passes to move the ball from the 46-yard line to the 10-yard line, the Bearcats relied on fullback Andy Bridge, who barreled in from a yard out. Bridge scored a second touchdown in the third quarter on a five-yard carry.

Following Bridge’s first touchdown run, Jacob Bedell nailed the extra point try and the Bearcats took a 7-0 lead with a little over five minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Bedell seemed to have the Midas touch in the game, going five for five on extra point attempts. He missed the opportunity for a sixth extra point when the Bearcats opted for a two-point conversion instead. Bedell then finished off his performance by nailing a 39-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter.

“We got a kicker, the guy’s got a good leg and it was a good opportunity to put it through the uprights with plenty to spare,” Schimke said. “When you’ve got a weapon like that, we know now we get inside the 20-yard line, the 30-yard line, we can put it out there.”

Bernal capped off the Bearcats’ other two touchdowns in the first half, the first of which came on a third and one where the junior quarterback flung a 45-yard touchdown pass to junior running back Toby Godwin.

“It was amazing; it was the first touchdown I’ve ever scored,” Godwin said.

Bernal wowed the crowd again when he threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Sorenson to start the fourth quarter that put the Bearcats up 35-0 over Central.

“It was great, Tom Bernal threw a perfect ball, and our line held their defensive line, [Bernal] didn’t have to scramble,” Sorenson said.

The Bearcats accumulated 416 yards in the game, with Bernal going 8-for-12 for 173 of those yards and two touchdowns.

“He started off a little shaky tonight, he had a couple of bad reads early, and I think he panicked in the pocket a little bit, and that surprised me,” Schimke said. “But on those two touchdown passes he put the ball on the money.”

Bernal said it came down to adjusting to a different look.

“It was a different front, I was trying to read the defense,” he said of some beginning of the game confusion. “Then everything came together, the team came together and it was good football.”

Aside from passing, Sorenson said the team worked hard all week in practice fine tuning plays, as well as shoring up mistakes made in their previous game.

“We’ve been working on a lot of stuff, trying to get our team to click and do everything right, and realize we need to work together, and we’re getting better at that,” he said.

The Bearcats will be on the road for their next three consecutive games, starting with a game against St. Joseph on Friday, Sept. 20.





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