SATURDAY SCOREBOARD
Piner 50 Richmond 0
Petaluma 7 Tamalpais 0
Middletown 21 Salesian 14
Kelseyville 68 Upper Lake 8
JC FOOTBALL
SRJC 54 Mendocino 7
Before moving onto the Saturday recap, another thought about Friday Night at Maria Carrillo. Thrilling games happen. There was another thriller happening at the same time in Windsor.
That it was the first radio game in nearly a decade also was just luck. Had we been a year earlier, and picked this game, it would have been hard to make anything sound exciting.
In the third quarter of the game I noticed something that frankly I didn’t expect. I was trying to keep up with a wild game and make sense of it and I noticed the crowd. Both sides of the stands at Maria Carrillo were jammed and there were people standing two or three deep all around the field.
It had the crowd and atmosphere of a big league or playoff game.
They fans got their money’s worth.
Now on to the Saturday recap.
Piner won a game 50-0. I am not a big fan of that kind of game, but this is sports and it happens. It probably happens more in high school sports and I know it happens more in college than it should.
But Piner won a game 50-0. It wasn’t too long ago that this team was on the receiving end of those kind of games. From 2008-2011, Piner lost seventeen games by at least 40 points. One game it was 75-0.
So this is being pointed out to point out the turnaround at Piner. They are 2-0 for the first time since 2002 and two wins was the most they had in six seasons from 2006-2011.
Noel Hernandez threw four touchdown passes and Piner took a 20-0 lead in the first quarter. From the teams prospective, they are on the right end of getting the treatment that happens with this kind of score, not much is said about it.
Something we can talk more about, in his 14th pre-league game in his fourth season as coach at Petaluma Rick Krist got a win.
It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but let’s face it, how hot it was around here on Saturday, it would be hard to do anything pretty, especially wearing football equipment during the middle of the day.
Through the first three quarter both teams barely had 100 yards in total offense. Petaluma then went on a 12 play-53 yard drive in the last six minutes of the game and scored on a one yard run by Quarterback Patrick Bailey with :06 left to get out of town with a win to even its record at 1-1.
Petaluma defense held running back Aseal Birir to 112 yards on 16 carries. That may not sound like much of a held, but Birir rushed for 258 yards and six touchdowns as Tamalpais won its opener over Galileo of SF 48-36.
That is a nice win by Middletown as they get the best of Salesian, a team over the last few years they have had some thrillers with, but usually ended up in a loss.
Brad Beckwith scored on a one yard run with :25 left to give Middletown the win . It looked like moments earlier that it was going to be another frustrating game for Middletown against Salesian, when they had the ball on its 42 and facing a 4th and 13. But the Mustangs came up big when Josiah Amos connected on a 42 yard play to Antonie Guzman. Middletown scored on the next play.
Middletown had taken a 13-0 lead in the first half, the first score a Guzman 53 yard fumble return and the other on a 52 yard pass by Amos.
Salesian, who won the NCS Division 4 title in 2010 and 2011, came back to take a 14-13 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Salesian won the 2010 NCS championship by defeating Middletown in overtime. That was one of several close losses Salesian has handed Middletown over the past few seasons. It looked like it was going to happen again until the late game heroics in what was the opener for Middletown.
Lenny Wagner’s first game as head coach was quite a success. Despite having less first downs, SRJC led 28-0 after one and 48-0 at half. The Bear Cubs scored two defensive touchdowns.
SRJC has its home opener next Friday night when they host Diablo Valley who lost its opener to San Francisco 41-9.
FINAL SCORECARD
FRIDAY
Analy 34 Maria Carrillo 30
Benicia 34 Windsor 27
Rancho Cotate 21 Alhambra 14
Casa Grande 12 Heritage 7
Healdsburg 16 St. Helena 14
Cardinal Newman 41 Novato 19
Sonoma Valley 42 Terra Linda 14
Ukiah 43 Willits 6
Tomales 52 Elsie Allen 6
Justin Siena 54 El Molino 0
St. Vincent 21 Cloverdale 6
Clear Lake 37 Durham 6
Lower Lake 53 Marshall 20
Calistoga 28 South Fork 6
St. Bernard’s 40 Fort Bragg 7
SATURDAY
Piner 50 Richmond 0
Petaluma 7 Tamalpais 0
Middletown 21 Salesian 14
Kelseyville 68 Upper Lake 0
Montgomery (1-0) and Santa Rosa (1-0) have the week off.
JC FOOTBALL
SRJC 54 Mendocino 7
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net