SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) – In sports it’s a given that a young team will experience growing pains and that is precisely what happened to the River Valley Falcons last Friday night when they fell 6-26 on the road to the McClatchy Lions in the 2025 season opener.

While the Falcons beat the Lions in their meeting last season, this time around with six underclassmen on the roster, a new coach and a new system, there is a lot to process as they look to rebuild.

Compounding the difficulty in adapting to the change, is the fact that the Falcons are already hampered by injury with their top running back Jesus Fernandez out for another week or two, while a second back, Anthony Zablotski, will not return for at least five to eight weeks.

Still, there were some positives to take away from the McClatchy game as Coach Mikey Badaluco explained, “We had 300 yards of offense and three of our four sacks on defense were made by the young guys.”

Junior receiver Kavari Drummonds was another bright spot, and the favorite target of quarterback Dominic Younker, hauling in six passes for 104 yards including a 45-yarder for River Valley’s only touchdown.

Employing the next man up mentality with Fernandez out and Zablotsky suffering an injury after gaining 64 yards, Cameron Smith shouldered the load, carrying 11 times for 65 yards.

For the River Valley defense, Noah Lopez made a team-high seven tackles, while sophomores Peyton Kitrell and Derek Young, freshman Jamarion Cohen and senior Joshua Kellas recorded a sack apiece.

Nonetheless, Badaluco knows that there is still much room for improvement saying, “We need to stop making mistakes and/or getting flagged for penalties in the red zone and we also can’t give up big plays on third and fourth and long. Our defense made some adjustments in the second half, but McClatchy runs the spread offense and not having Jesus, our fastest linebacker, killed us.”

With a game now under their belts the Falcons (0-1) are back on the road this Friday when they travel to Woodland to take on Pioneer (1-0), a team that beat Davis 42-12 in its first game of the year.