Despite sloppy performance, Justin-Siena moves past Saint Mary’s and onto CIF North Coast Section semifinals
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Once playoffs start, it’s important to bring your best effort to the field.
Yet, in Friday night’s CIF North Coast Section Division 6 quarterfinal Justin-Siena played more of a so-so game when they beat Saint Mary’s of Albany 31-13. It was good they got the job done, but there was plenty of opportunities left on the field.
The game was a far cry from their home-opener back on September 10th that the Braves won 34-0.
“Very, very sloppy. Like we came out, we had a good game plan. We did not execute, made too many mental errors,” Justin-Siena senior running back Caden Parlett bluntly said of the game. “We weren’t playing as a team. We were playing the blame game, but we made it through the game. We made it to the next round, but if we play like that again, it’s not going to cut it going through the playoffs.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Justin-Siena (6-5) opener things up in the second quarter. Their first score came with 10:31 left in the second quarter when Zach Zurowski scampered into the end zone from 24 yards out. Before the score, Zurowski found Caden Parlett for a 43-yard screen pass to set up the score.
Then, just 18 seconds later Robby Sangiacomo picked off a Finnian Hartney pass and returned it to the house for a 37-yard pick-six that gave the Braves a quick 14 point advantage.
“That was a big one because we had really been giving up some plays on defense,” Justin-Siena head coach Brandon LaRocco admitted. “We hadn’t put up points on the ton of points on the board offensively, so that was a big one. Kind of felt like we took control at that point. Then we started letting it slip away in the second half.”
Before the pick-six, the Braves had their first few drives fall flat. To make matters worse, Saint Mary’s was moving the ball on them throughout the game.
“It was a huge momentum shift because I mean, we came out got stopped on offense in the red zone, and then we scored, and then Robby getting that pick-six was huge,” Parlett said of the big momentum changer. “We got those two touchdowns pretty much back-to-back and that was a huge momentum shift.”
Justin-Siena extended the lead to 21-0 when Zurowski found Sangiacomo for a long 48-yard touchdown connection.
Speaking of the second half, Saint Mary’s (3-7) were able to get to within eight points after back-to-back scoring drives in the game.
It all started when Hartney found Malachi Young for a 68-yard touchdown with just 3:39 left in the first half.
Out of the half, the Panthers also recovered the onside kick and then went down and scored on a 20-yard touchdown pass when Hartney found Paul Wilson.
Luckily, the Braves were able to put the game away thanks to a Sangiacomo 21-yard field goal with 20.2 left in the third quarter and a Parlett 6 yard touchdown run with just 5:51 left in the contest.
“We move the ball well. It’s never been about moving the ball for us,” LaRocco explained. “Where we struggle I think is finishing, and that happened again tonight. And we just can’t leave points on the field and expect to win a championship. That will not work.”
Parlett once again shined on offense by 20 times for 130 yards, with the one score.
The win means the No. 3 seed Braves will travel north to face the No. 2 seed Arcata next Friday night at McKinleyville High School. Arcata romped San Lorenzo 44-0 to punch their ticket to the semifinals.
This will also be Justin-Siena’s second trip to Humboldt County this season.
