Arroyo Grande cruises over Paso as SLO County league play kicks off. Find out results

On the opening night of league play, the battle between two Mountain League opponents went to the South County school as Arroyo Grande topped Paso Robles big.

Meanwhile, Templeton secured a lopsided, shutout win in the Ocean League and remains undefeated on the season.

In other league action, San Luis Obispo scraped by to earn a road win at Pioneer Valley in the Sunset League.

Here are other results from across the county as Nipomo starts up its league play next week after a Friday bye.

Arroyo Grande 56, Paso Robles 14

Arroyo Grande (3-4, 1-0 Mountain) had all the right answers at War Memorial Stadium, dominating Paso Robles (2-5, 0-1 Mountain) on its home turf Friday night by a 42-point margin.

Both teams entered the matchup 2-4, but it was the Eagles who controlled every facet of the game, building a commanding 28-point lead by halftime to put things out of reach early.

Receiving the opening kickoff, Arroyo Grande set the tone immediately with a 27-yard rushing touchdown from Levi Childers. From there, the ground game only gained momentum.

“It’s not a secret that we’re kinda a run-first team,” Arroyo Grande Coach Stephen Field said. “Anybody that’s watched us play or any of our opponents knows that.”

The Eagles scored touchdowns on their next four drives, relying on the backfield tandem of Caleb Clark, Miles Thompson and Childers to carve through the Bearcat defense. All three running backs accounted for all of the Eagles’ touchdowns.

Paso Robles struggled to adjust, unable to contain the steady handoffs and misdirection plays that powered Arroyo Grande’s offense.

Field said what makes Arroyo Grande’s offense difficult to defend is the number of things opponents have to account for — from their versatile running backs to their strong offensive line. That versatility showed Friday night, as the Eagles’ run game controlled the tempo from start to finish, with Field crediting their offensive line.

Paso Robles’ head coach Matt Carroll echoed that sentiment. “Their offensive line is fantastic,” Carroll said. “That’s a hard thing in this day and age, to stop a good running football team.”

Carroll said the biggest thing that led to Friday’s loss was the “lack of physicality on defense.” “I think part of that is guys aren’t confident in their job and we’re gonna fix that immediately.”

If the Bearcats wanted any chance to flip the script, they needed stops on defense or points on the board, preferably both.

Their offense finally found a rhythm late in the second quarter after falling behind 35-0. Quarterback Blayne Lowry began to spread the field, finding success through the air on back-to-back drives.

After repeatedly targeting his left side with completions to Tre Clark, Lowry connected on a 12-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Garcia in the right corner of the end zone to put Paso Robles on the board. On the following drive, he found Emmett Dobroth for a 23-yard score, trimming the deficit before halftime 42-14.

However, that momentum was short-lived, as Paso Robles failed to find the end zone for the remainder of the game.

Clark, Childers and Thompson each finished with three touchdowns apiece. The Eagles didn’t throw a single pass until the fourth quarter because their rushing game was working too well.

They never needed to abandon what had been effective all night: running straight through the Bearcat defense.

Field said that despite the adversity the Eagles faced early in the season, the team has continued to “persevere.”

Some of that adversity included starting the season 0-2 and falling just short in close games earlier this season.

“We’ve got a lot we can build on from that adversity,” Field said. “That’s a challenge we have weekly — to stay focused and take the lessons we’ve learned over the course of the year and apply them to the next week.”

Arroyo Grande hosts Lompoc while Paso Robles is at St. Joseph on Friday.

Santa Ynez 28, Atascadero 14

The Greyhounds (2-4, 0-1 Sunset) lost on the road.

Damon Mitchell intercepted a pass and ran it for a pick-6 touchdown to open a 6-0 lead for the Greyhounds after the point after kick, but Atascadero didn’t score again until the fourth quarter as Jacob Perry hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass.

Atascadero was down 28-6 early in the fourth quarter as Santa Ynez (5-2, 1-0) snagged multiple interceptions in the contest to force turnovers.

Atascadero is at home against Pioneer Valley on Friday.

San Luis Obispo 23, Pioneer Valley 21

The Tigers (4-2, 1-0) won their Sunset League opener behind a big night from quarterback Zion Hegg.

Hegg threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third. The junior signal caller connected with Grady Garrison for a 13-yard score in the first quarter and with Andrew De La Motte for a 12-yard scoring toss in the third quarter. Hegg ran in a 5-yard touchdown in the third quarter after the Panthers hiked a snap over the punter’s head and into the end zone for a safety to go up 16-14.

Down 14-7 at the half on the road, SLO tied the game in the third quarter at 14-14 on Hegg’s scoring pass to De La Motte.

Pioneer Valley (1-5, 0-1) had a chance to take the lead with about a minute to go in the fourth but botched a kick on a field goal attempt.

SLO was playing without star running back Colbin Garrison, who was held out on precautionary measures to recover from injuries.

Coach Pat Johnston said the Tigers will need to clean up some penalties and do better on defense stops.

“We weren’t at our best tonight,” Johnston said. “We just have to play cleaner. When we have opportunities to get off the field on a third down stop, we have to follow through on that, and fourth down stops as well. We had a couple instances, whether it was a third down or fourth down, where we stopped them, but some kind of penalty allowed them to keep possession. And we just need to clean stuff like that up to feel good about our chances to play well moving forward.”

San Luis Obispo hosts Righetti on Friday.

St. Joseph 40, Mission Prep 0

Mission Prep (2-4, 0-1 Mountain) was shut out by St. Joseph, falling 40-0 in a game where the Royals couldn’t get on the scoreboard.

The Royals had some strong first-down runs from star rusher Ronnie Kardashian, but had trouble containing St. Joseph’s offense.

St. Joseph built a commanding 33-0 lead by halftime, and while Mission Prep’s defense tightened up in the second half, holding the Knights to just one touchdown and a field goal, the early deficit proved too much to overcome.

Mission Prep is at Caruthers on Friday.

Templeton 56, Santa Maria 0

The Eagles (5-0, 1-0 Ocean) remained undefeated in convincing fashion, cruising over Santa Maria (0-5, 0-1).

Templeton senior Armando Soto had three rushing touchdowns. Star rusher Tyler Cunningham recorded two scores on the ground.

Junior Colby Sims returned a punt for a touchdown.

The Eagles held Santa Maria to 32 total yards of offense. Inside linebacker Garret Davis was a leader on defense and played well last week against Atascadero, said Coach Don Crow, who called him “fearless” and a player who’d “run through a wall.”

“We played well and everybody got to play,” Crow said.

Templeton hosts Morro Bay on Friday.

Cabrillo 28, Morro Bay 21

The Pirates (2-4, 0-1 Ocean) fell at home on Homecoming Night to the Conquistadores (5-1, 1-0 Ocean).

Quarterback Sands Dougherty had two touchdown passes.

Cabrillo limited Morro Bay’s high-powered offense by playing prevent defense, and the Pirates struggled to run the ball effectively. said Pirates Coach Robert Dougherty.

“We were trying to establish run game and should have been able to run the ball better, and we really didn’t do a good job of that,” Dougherty said. “We were just a little bit off our game and not quite firing on all cylinders. ... We need to rebound. We need to do better as coaches, and make a better plan and come up with a little simpler plan, probably for these kids.”

Morro Bay plays at Templeton on Friday.

This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 11:52 PM.