Justin-Siena prevails in defensive slugfest against Petaluma in season and league-opener
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s been a long time since high school football was played.
For that reason alone, it made all the games statewide mean that much more. During the National Anthem, Justin-Siena head coach Brandon LaRocco didn’t get goosebumps because it was cold, but because his team finally got to hit the field for a game.
“Honestly, it doesn’t feel real,” he said. “It was not going to happen, but it did. It was amazing to be out here during the National Anthem. I just got goosebumps. I love that part of the game. It’s an important step of the game and right before that I was like ‘man, I can’t believe we’re here.’”
“It feels great,” Justin-Siena senior quarterback Hudson Beers said of finally playing their first game. “We’ve been working our tails off for over a year and it was really surreal. It didn’t really settle in until kickoff that we’re actually playing and now that we play, it’s just amazing to be out here.”
But the Justin-Siena football team was able to make the season-opener and league-opener that much special when they squeaked out a 7-0 victory over Petaluma.
“I think it’s a huge win to carry on the momentum for the rest of the season,” Beers explained. “We only get six games that aren’t even guaranteed so of course, we came out and tried to play it like it was our only game. I think we’re just gonna carry that same momentum the rest of the season.”
The game was a mixture of bad offense and good defense. The Braves (1-0 overall, 1-0 Vine Valley Athletic League) were able to come up with three turnovers in the game while only turning it over once.
“It was a little bit of both,” LaRocco explained. “Probably a little bit of both, it’s harder to get the offense going. It’s on a short window. It’s just a bit more intricate to run an offense. So it’s always going to be a little bit harder to get the offensive lines to gel and the receiving corps, for us our passing game. The timing of everything was a little bit off.
“I think it’s probably a little bit of both, but I’m very proud of the way our defense played because they had the move that moved the ball on a couple of times, and we stiffened up with it mattered and came up with some big plays, a couple of fumbles,” LaRocco continued. “That one in the red zone that we had was huge. That wasn’t that was a game-saver.”
Late in the game, the Trojans (0-1, 0-1 VVAL) were able to drive down to the Justin-Siena 12-yard line before the Braves forced a fumble.
The lone score of the game came when senior running back Noah Young found the end zone from eight yards out with 5:05 left in the first half. The drive got kick-started by a Beers completion to Seth Morrison for 29 yards up the sideline.
“We started off sloppy,” Beers pointed out. “I just told the guys ‘hey, we need to come together. We need to go down and score, you know, our defense has been bailing us out, we need to make a big play.’ I think we just took that and tried to carry it on the rest of the game.”
Young rushed nine times for 25 yards, with the lone score of the game. But he also provided a physical presence of the field for the Braves, which is far beyond the stats.
“He was very crucial,” Beers said of his backfield mate. “He’s our big man running the ball. I kind of call him he’s like the Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights. He’s a big, physical runner. He plays a huge part in our offense and that score really helps.”
The spring season continues next week when Justin-Siena heads to Sonoma for a matchup with Sonoma Valley. Meanwhile, Petaluma will return to Napa next week for a meeting with Vintage. Both games kick-off at 7 pm on Friday night.
In other games around the league, American Canyon beat Sonoma Valley 42-6. Vintage beat Casa Grande-Petaluma 53-6.
