Blas Uzueta paced to the sidelines after throwing an interception late in the fourth quarter of the Arroyo Grande High School football team's game against Paso Robles at Doug Hitchen Stadium on Friday night, dropped to his knees and pounded the ground with his fists.

Rising to his feet, Uzueta glanced at the scoreboard, which flashed a 10-point Bearcats lead with about two minutes remaining, and winced.

A 23-13 loss to a squad with a record of 2-4 wasn't the way the Eagles' homecoming game was supposed to turn out, at least from their point of view. But that's what happened.

Arroyo Grande entered the contest playing its best football of the year, obliterating its last two opponents by a combined score of 97-21. After his team got crunched by the Eagles 42-6 last Friday, Atascadero head coach Vic Cooper said he wouldn't be surprised if Arroyo Grande finished the league schedule undefeated.

Well, the Eagles (5-2, 1-1) won't be unbeaten in league, and now they've got to finish strong just to remain in contention for their third straight PAC-5 League crown.

“I know my team,” said senior flyback James Valez. “We're a good group of guys. I know my teammates will come out hard (in practice next week), pick up the intensity and clean up a lot of things we didn't do well tonight.”

Normally teams come out for their homecoming game with an extra dose of motivation to play well, so the fact that the Eagles played uninspired football for most of the night was truly stunning.

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“This was our biggest game of the season,” said Bearcats quarterback Stuart Sheldon. “We were prepared for this. It was a battle. I don't know what else to say. I'm speechless.”

The most mystifying aspect of the game was how well the Paso Robles defense, which entered the contest giving up an average of 31 points per game, shut down the Eagles' vaunted rushing attack.

Arroyo Grande ran for 951 yards combined in its previous two games, but was held to just 147 yards by an aggressive Bearcats (3-4, 1-0) defensive unit.

“They were coming off their bye week, and scouted us well,” said Valez, who ran for 42 yards on seven carries. “They shut down the sweep, and that's a core part of our game.”

Arroyo Grande has been thriving on big plays recently, but the Bearcats didn't allow a rushing play of more than 15 yards.

More importantly, the Paso Robles offense did exactly what head coach Rich Schimke wanted it to do - keep the Eagles' ball-control, time-consuming offense off the field for long stretches by consistently converting third downs to keep drives going.

Schimke can thank Sheldon and wideout Cody Gang for that. The two hooked up on a 37-yard touchdown pass on a play called 42 slash Z-go - a simple deep post pattern - to give the Bearcats a 9-6 lead with three minutes left in the first half.

After Tyler DeRose scored on an eight-yard run to give the Eagles a 13-9 lead with 3:42 left in the third quarter, Sheldon and Gang hooked up on an identical pass pattern for a 35-yard score to give the Bearcats a 16-13 lead they didn't relinquish.

Sheldon completed the scoring on a 5-yard run with 6:49 to go that preceded Uzueta's interception, on which Mike Armstrong took the ball away from DeAngelo Waller in the end zone.

“We just got up on them,” Schimke said. “We couldn't allow them to control the clock and grind it out. If we did, we knew we wouldn't have a lot of chances to score. We were successful in the red zone, which was huge because their defense usually stiffens up down there.”

Sheldon, the league's leading passer entering the game, was superb, throwing for 232 yards and rushing for 87 more.

“He's a very versatile guy,” said Eagles coach Jon Huss. “He ran the ball well, and his long balls were accurate. He made some great throws.”

Oct. 22, 2005