Defense leads Justin-Siena to home-opening win over St. Mary’s
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Winning in front of the home crowd is always nice. It’s even nicer when it’s your first win of the season. That’s what Justin-Siena did on Friday night when they beat St. Mary’s of Albany 34-0.
While the offense came to life, the story of the night was the goose egg the defense put up on the evening.
Throughout the evening, the Braves’ (1-2) defense was flying all over the field. It was something Justin-Siena head coach Brandon LaRocco was happy to see.
“I think we had a pretty good game plan in place,” he said. “I think we executed it pretty well. The kids played hard. This defense has a lot of upside I think. We’re not the biggest group, but we’re pretty athletic and we don’t mind getting physical, which is nice to see.”
They were also able to hold the Panthers (2-1) to just 25 yards on the ground. Through the air, they held them to 77 total yards. Justin-Siena was able to collect four sacks on the night.
“We always like big plays in the backfield,” LaRocco said of the four sacks. “Tackle for losses, sacks, and takeaways. I don’t think we had a ton of takeaways tonight, but we forced a couple of fourth-down losses.”
For Justin-Siena, it was also nice to get an offensive breakthrough after being staggered last week.
“Something was holding us back and this week we got past that,” Justin-Siena senior running back Caden Parlett explained. “So now, it’s only up from here.”
The first score of the game came with 8:03 left in the first quarter when Caden Parlett found the end zone on a 22-yard run. Parlett scored once more in the game on a 12-yard run at the 5:37 mark of the fourth quarter.
On the night, Parlett rushed 21 times for 126 yards.
“I was just having fun,” he added. “I’ve got to give props to my line. Can’t do it without them. I saw the field well. I had a fun night.”
“Caden is a hell of a football player,” LaRocco pointed out. “The kid is a competitor. He slips and avoids collisions really, really well, and I think that gives him an advantage. He’s deceptively hard to bring down like people see how big he is. But he doesn’t go down. He just kind of finds a way to kind of keep strumming and keep fighting.”
Also adding to the scoring was dual-threat signal-caller Zach Zurowski. With 6:42 left in the first half, Zurowski found Robby Sangiacomo for a 21-yard connection. Then, with 1:11 left in the game, he scampered into the end zone on a nine-yard touchdown run.
Zurowski ended the evening completing 9 of 14 passes for yards. He also had two interceptions on the night. Rushing-wise, he carried the ball four times for 29 yards. He was also sacked once.
“This is Zach’s second game starting at quarterback,” LaRocco explained. “He didn’t get to play in the scrimmage. He didn’t get to play in our first game. So, it’s going to take time and that’s part of the process.”
The Braves also broke out some trickery in the game. After taking the handoff from Zurowski, Josiyah Maddalone found Eric Gutierrez along the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown pass.
The Braves were able to pick up their first win of the season in their only home non-league game. It was the first time they played a game with a good-sized crowd in the stands since the fall of 2019.
“We had a great turnout tonight,” LaRocco said of playing in front of the home crowd. “The students were enthused. We haven’t played a home game with students at it since 2019. It was great energy tonight. The boys responded really well.”
The home cooking is short-lived for Justin-Siena. Next week, they’ll take a long trek to Grass Valley for a meeting with Bear River. St. Mary’s will be back in action next Saturday afternoon at 1:30 when they visit Fremont of Oakland.
