Prep football: Sunnyside overcomes penalties to beat Mt. Whitney

Editor’s note: Sunnyside’s Travis Wilson was misidentified in an earlier version of this story, and Mt. Whitney’s record was incorrect.

On a night Sunnyside High School was far from perfect, you never would have known it from a casual glance at the score: 49-19 over The Bee’s Central Section No. 17-ranked Mt. Whitney on Friday at Mineral King Bowl.

It was all summarized by a strange sequence of plays midway through the third quarter, starting with a 12-yard pass from Wildcats quarterback Nate Hughes to Raymond Hernandez that was erased by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Then came what should have been a punt from the Sunnyside 17-yard line, only for it to be a fake that the Pioneers stopped for a two-yard loss.

But two plays later, Sunnyside (1-1) forced a fumble that Travis Wilson scooped and returned 79 yards for a touchdown and 35-7 lead.

It was that kind of night for the Wildcats, who committed penalty after penalty yet still cruised behind a dominating defense that intercepted four Mt. Whitney passes, including a 60-yard pick-6 by Marcus Hawkins, and a pass-happy offense that received three scoring tosses from Hughes.

Mt. Whitney (2-1) was led by Isaiah Salazar, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for one.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 11:59 PM with the headline "Prep football: Sunnyside overcomes penalties to beat Mt. Whitney."