Ragin’ Rhinos in Kruse control: QB leads upstart Twelve Bridges over Sutter for PVL title
Whit Kruse is in cruise control, all systems go.
He’s the senior quarterback for the surging upstart Twelve Bridges High School football team, the big man in the pocket peering down field and also the towering student figure on the Placer County campus at 6-foot-6.
He is polite and mild mannered before games, then competes like there’s no tomorrow, and then he morphs back to being the good soul afterward, even while dripping sweat and shaking hands or hugging all comers. On Thursday night in a Pioneer Valley League title bout at the base of the picturesque mountains in Sutter, some 17 miles away from Yuba City, Kruse delivered in his team’s most crucial test in a season of promise.
The steady senior passed for 190 yards, overcame two interceptions he’d like to have back, had a 1-yard scoring plunge and fired a 34-yard touchdown strike to Anthony Gallagher to key the No. 17 Ragin’ Rhinos 19-14 victory over No. 18 Sutter to move to 8-0. Sutter is 7-2.
Kruse is in such a groove that he also was named his school’s homecoming king earlier this season. He spends more time complimenting his teammates and coaches and those in his supportive community than he does breaking down his own achievements.
“It’s been a good life for him this year,” Twelve Bridges coach Chris Bean said with a laugh. “You walk around the school and everybody knows him. Everybody loves him. No one thinks ill of Whit because he’s a genuine kid. When he walks up to an official before a game, he knows their name. And we need Whit to play well to help balance us out, and he has.”
Kruse invites the challenge to lead this program, and he appreciated going against Sutter’s own big QB in the 6-6 Jagger Beck. Kruse’s backfield mate, Nathan Crawford, is the leading candidate to be the PVL’s Player of the Year, and he’s certainly in the running for Bee Player of the Year honors, having rushed for 1,000 yards on the dot entering the game. The relentless senior runner scored on a 4-yard effort up the middle to open the scoring, churned out 84 yards on 21 carries in the first half and finished with 122 yards on 30 attempts, a lot of it up the middle where the action was brewing in the trenches.
“Nathan doesn’t go down,” Kruse said. “And our defense was great. Defense wins championships. We’ve been preparing for this game. We knew it’d be a crazy matchup and it was. We even practiced on a grass field on our campus.”
Kruse said as much while looking at his uniform and game pants, covered in dirt and grass stains. The game was intense, emotional, a bit chippy at times, and a throwback to football from a different era. It featured the new program on the block taking on the old guard in Sutter, which opened its campus doors 130 years ago. The contest was played on natural grass, with a patch of bare dirt in the middle, and it kicked off after Sutter trotted out two horses for a full-on gallop along the dirt track, the riders from the schools Future Farmers of America program, one carrying an American flag.
Kruse and company crashed the party, beating a team that handled them 42-14 a year ago as Sutter capped a 10-0 regular season in 2022.
But the Twelve Bridges players also felt their welts, bruises and sore limbs on Friday morning after enduring their most physical contest. That’s the norm when you play a powerhouse like Sutter, which devoured teams in the Northern Section for decades, hanging up so many championship banners that they have run out of room. Sutter entered the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section before the start of the 2022-23 academic year and has shown it belongs in sports across the board.
Sutter home games are an event, fans packed in, young and old. Huskies coaches chatted with Bean afterward, heavy on mutual respect after a show that felt like a playoff encounter.
“Awesome vibe, a big-time game, the Sutter fans, it was all here,” Bean said. “We needed a bruiser of a game. We needed a game to be pushed, to see where our flaws are, and we definitely have some flaws, but some things are very correctable.”
More than just football
Bean has been masterful in rallying in his program and community, which won’t celebrate its first graduating class until the spring. The Rhinos went 7-5 last season, winning a playoff game and then losing a crusher to eventual CIF state champion Hughson in double-overtime, 35-34.
While addressing his team after Thursday’s game, Bean acknowledged the fans who made the trek from Lincoln. He pointed out coaches for their impact, including defensive coordinator Grant Fowler, and he had his guys belt out a happy birthday tune to another coach in Richard Travis. It’s safe to say the Rhinos are better at football than they are in a chorus tune, but the effort was noble, and Travis was moved.
Football for this new program goes well beyond blocking and tackling. Bean is a Colfax High School graduate from 1992 who led championship teams at Lincoln High, so he can relate to what small-town sports can do to a player, a team, a school and a community.
“It has to be more than just the game,” Bean said. “This thing is hard, man. When you start looking at society at times, if we’re just concerned with wins and losses, we’re losing the game of life. I know that sounds super dorky and cliche, but it’s true. One of our coaches said, ‘Listen, if you can fight to compete in a game like this, you’re going to be able to fight to make it happen when you get into real life.’”
Kruse plows into end zone
Twelve Bridges led 12-0 with two missed point-after conversions after Kruse ran in the only touchdown of his life. The play was set up by a fourth-down, 40-yard pass to Isaiah Rodriguez. Kruse rumbled through Sutter defenders on his way to the end zone with five seconds left in the half, delivering every ounce of his 215-pound frame into guys bent on stopping him.
Kruse had a rushing TD on junior varsity two years ago, but it was called back due to a penalty. He didn’t start playing tackle football until high school, so he savored his long-legged bolt to the end zone, his father, Barry, jumping out of his skin while he filmed the action from atop the press box.
Sutter cut it to 12-7 on a 49-yard TD run by Marcus Meras. He scored the final points on a 1-yard run on the final play of the third quarter. Sutter’s last chance ended with a fumble at its own 20-yard line, the ball punched out by Zeke Wood and recovered by Eli Wade. It took everyone to get this game.
Sutter was jolted when senior running back Tristan Watkins broke his lower leg, bent over backward on a tackle. Coaches from both sides huddled around him. Watkins drew an applause from both sides when he was carted off, offering a thumbs up and a slight smile.
Sutter and head coach Ryan Reynolds next play at Wheatland on Oct. 27 with the aim of securing a high seed in the section D-VI playoffs. The other Huskies loss was 26-24 to Chico, the No. 2-ranked team in the Northern Section, on Aug. 25.
Twelve Bridges plays at Colfax on Oct. 20 and at home against Marysville on Oct. 27, where a sweep may well land the program the top seed in the section D-V playoffs.
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 2:14 PM.