Napa ends season on a positive note with victory over Sonoma Valley
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When it’s the final game of the season, going out on a winning note is always nice.
That’s what happened on Friday night when the Napa High football team beat Sonoma Valley 36-24 in the season finale for both teams. It was something that players and coaches alike were happy to finally get.
For senior wide receiver Christoph Horton, it was nice to go out with a win.
“It means a lot because a lot of these kids I’ve been playing with since my freshman year when I first started playing football,” he explained. “So it was cool to leave the school with the win with my brothers.”
Meanwhile, second-year head coach Askari Adams was thrilled to get in the win column after being close multiple times this season.
“I mean, it’s huge,” the coach said. “These kids have been so close all year, and always been like one or two plays away. And tonight, they came out, and often just clicking team was doing a great job. Special teams was actually doing well, so this is something that we ex[ected from them all year.”
Horton was the star of the contest. He ended the night with four total touchdowns. He had a pair of 14 yarders thrown his way by Yovani Palma. Horton ended the night with 100 receiving yards on five receptions.
“He came in excited,” Adams said of Horton. “Last game. He came out and made a point tonight, and he did a great job today.”
He also added a pair of rushing touchdowns. His first rushing score came from 50 yards out, and then one from just three yards out. He also accumulated 110 yards rushing on eight carries.
“Coaches wrote up some good plays,” Horton said of his nice night. “We were executing them very good.”
Palma also played his best game of the season. He completed 11 of 15 passes for 235 yards. The sophomore also added 13 yards on the ground on five rushes. The only other score for the Grizzlies came when Palma found Raul Castellanos for a 13-yard score with four minutes left in the first half.
Napa also converted a field goal in the game. It came when Kevin Rico sent it through the uprights from 26 yards out with 10:40 left in the first half.
Napa (1-9 overall, 1-5 Vine Valley Athletic League) played their best game defensively. They were able to rack up eight sacks and forced a fumble as well.
“I’m always happy to see turnovers,” Adams joked. “Like I said, the demons came out tonight, and they played aggressively. I challenge them every week. But I really challenged them this week, about coming out and playing Napa football and playing Napa defense.”
The Dragons (1-9, 0-6 VVAL) were able to stay in the game thanks to the hard-fought effort of quarterback Trent Ohman. He had rushing touchdowns from 20 and 9 yards out, while also finding Spencer Jacobs for a 10-yard score. The other score for Sonoma Valley came on a 34-yard field goal by Mikey Serbicki.
For both teams, the season is now complete. For Napa, it’s huge to end the season with a win heading into the first normal offseason in a few years.
“The kids coming back, we’ll give them some time off, and coming back in January and working our butts off in the weight room,” Adams said as to what’s next. “As you can tell this year, we weren’t a strong team. So the main thing is that we get stronger and faster.”
In other VVAL action Friday night, Casa Grande beat Justin-Siena 53-37 and American Canyon beat Petaluma 35-28.
