Junior running back takes a star turn as Sheldon switches gears on Laguna Creek

Isaiah Bickham doesn’t look like the kind of football player that’s going to throw the opponents for a loop. The Sheldon junior is listed at 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds. Sure, he had 207 yards rushing heading into Friday’s tilt with Laguna Creek, but Bickham wasn’t supposed to feature prominently in the Sheldon offense.

But Huskies coach Chris Nixon threw the Cardinals a curveball, opting to use his powerful offensive line to clear the way for Bickham. The slight running back shot through the gaps and galloped for 186 rushing yards and three touchdowns as Sheldon cruised to a 39-13 win at Cosumnes River College.

Sheldon averaged nearly 300 passing yards in its first two games of the year. But Nixon wanted to switch things up for his crosstown rival.

“It was taking a look at our personnel and saying we wanted to establish a run game,” he said. “We didn’t necessarily do that last week, so we went a little smashmouth and got the guys pumped up about that.”

It was more than a little smashmouth. Sheldon used 13 straight run plays to start the game, including a 57-yard touchdown charge from Bickham on the first play of the game. It was the second quarter before the Huskies threw a pass; Bickham already had two of his three touchdowns at that point.

About the only thing that shouts “flashy” are Bickham’s bright-orange socks, which loudly feature the Fruit Loops cereal logo.

“It’s my favorite cereal and my little niece and nephew (Mari and Emri) told me to do good for them this game, so I decided to wear them to show out for them,” he said.

Nixon was confident in his game plan, but not so sure about the socks.

“I looked at those things and said ‘Hmm. You know what, they’re all right, I like ‘em. For a second there, I was not sure,” he said.

“He’s a fantastic guy. He’s the Energizer Bunny. At night you’ve gotta go take the batteries out of his back, otherwise he’s gonna keep going.”

Bickham was happy with his star turn, but he had plenty of teammates to thank. Junior quarterback completed 5 of 6 passes in the first half for 126 yards; he finished with three touchdown throws, all to junior receiver Scott Nixon.

Bickham said he wasn’t surprised by the offense’s efficiency, but added the defense (where he also plays cornerback) has work to do.

“We always improve. Our mistakes, we had a couple mistakes. We can always do better, week by week,” he said. “Our offensive linemen did really good. That’s an A-plus on the linemen. We had some defensive mistakes we have to fix.”

Laguna Creek coach Ryan Nill was left shaking his head after the game. Though the game ended up looking like a blowout, the Cardinals were plenty competitive early. Quarterback Hayden Johnson hit Jadiah Shockley on a 66-yard touchdown bomb on the first play from scrimmage, then Johnson led a 73-yard scoring drive to tie the game at 13 late in the first quarter.

But Sheldon made a defensive adjustment at the start of the second quarter and ran off a 20-0 stretch to take control of the game.

“We game-planned for more of a spread team, and … I think they looked at what they had up front, what we had up front, and they decided to just ground and pound these guys,” Nill said. “We had to scramble a little bit. Typical high school football team, we have two-way starters. It’s not like we can grab the whole defense and make a game plan while the offense is going.”

The Cardinals weren’t happy with the loss, but they had some highlights of their own. The Cardinals had four sacks and two interceptions as they hindered the Sheldon air attack. A.D. Struthers had three sacks and Nill cited the work of defensive lineman Manny Santos as key to Laguna Creek slowing Sheldon down in the second half.

“Absolutely happy with the halftime adjustment,” Nill said. “The kids absolutely bought in. The mindset was let’s go shut them out and try to outscore them.

“… When your defense is on the field for the majority of the game, it’s pretty tough to win, especially when you’re down by 20 points.”

Laguna Creek has a chance to bounce back Friday with a game against Cordova. Sheldon starts Delta League play by hosting Franklin. Maybe Sheldon will find another wrinkle to add before that game.

This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 8:46 AM.