Nevada Union proves to be too much, wins overtime thriller over Napa
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Napa and Nevada Union have played some classics over the last few years.
One of those games was also a double-overtime game that saw Napa come away with a 35-34 double-overtime victory.
Well, sometimes history has a way of repeating itself. In their home-opener, Nevada Union ended up coming away with the 20-14 overtime victory.
“You know, we had a lot of injuries going into the game we had even more as the game went on,” Napa coach Richie Wessman said. “It certainly caused us a lot of adversity. But you know, we don’t make any excuses for that we have a policy of next man up and you know, we fought hard we fought as hard as we possibly could and, unfortunately just wasn’t enough tonight.”
The game ended when Nevada Union running back Jaxon Horne scored the final of his three touchdowns of the night from six yards out. Horne opened the game up with a four-yard touchdown run with 2:57 left in the first half. He also had a 19-yard scamper with 10:44 remaining in the contest.
One of those injuries was to starting quarterback Isiah Newton. Newton left the game with an injury and didn’t return, which thrusted sophomore backup quarterback Hunter St. Clair into action.
“When you’re a backup quarterback you don’t get as many reps in practice,” Wessman added of the situation. “You know, he did it. He did a fantastic job of leading the offense.”
St. Clair didn’t disappoint either in leading the Grizzlies (1-1) to both of their scores in the game. First, he found Christoph Horton for a 33-yard touchdown connection with 5:40 left in the third quarter.
“Hunter is our backup quarterback and he threw a really nice pass that set me up perfectly,” Horton explained of his touchdown reception.
Then, a little bit later with 10:23 left in the game he found Brock Bowers running along the Napa for a 90-yard touchdown.
“We ran that play like two other times,” Bowers explained of the play that eventually led to his 90-yard touchdown. “I feel like I got separation more times. But he just put it right there that time. So, just a good throw.”
The game went to overtime after the Miners (1-1) had a pair of missed field goal attempts from their kicker Moises Tovar, which ultimately forced the game to go to overtime. His first missed attempt came from 37 yards out and 2:32 remaining in the game. But his second missed attempt was the big one when he missed a chip-shot 20-yard field goal attempt that clanged off of the left upright.
Napa will be back in action next week when they visit Vallejo. It’ll be the schools first meeting in six years. At one point, Napa and Vallejo had the third-oldest rivalry in California. As for Nevada Union, they’ll head into their bye week before facing Harbor-Santa Cruz at 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 14th.
