Justin-Siena puts together best game of season to roll past Sonoma Valley, climb back into league race
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s always nice to see your sophomore quarterback take that next step. It also helps when the defense is dominant.
On Friday night at Dodd Stadium, the Justin-Siena football team dominated in all three phases of the game when they cruised past Sonoma Valley, 41-7.
The Braves (4-2 overall, 1-1 Vine Valley Athletic League put out their smoothest effort on offense that showed some of the early season kinks are starting to be worked out. One of the main reasons for this was Drew Sangiacomo starting to come into his own under-center.
In the contest, he threw two touchdowns. His first one was to Ben Sebastiani on a 26-yard connection with 7:50 left till half. With just 2.5 ticks left until the half, Sangiacomo found Trevor L’Esperence on a 35-yard bomb to go up 27-7 at the break.
“I think he’s doing a really good job,” Justin-Siena first-year head coach Tyler Streblow said of the sophomore signal-caller. “It was tough. He was sick for a week and then sick for another half of a week. He just needs to get the reps. He’s so incredibly talented. It’s a complicated offense we run. It’s just going to take a minute. His poise is something that I think is really impressive. He doesn’t get rattled, he stands in the pocket. He takes a lot of hits. But he did an amazing job. I’m just proud of him.”
In the game, Sangiacomo completed 8 of 16 passes for 177 yards, the two scores, and a pick.
“He’s obviously really young. He has a lot of time to grow,” Justin-Siena senior linebacker/tight end Brandon Guiducci said of Sangiacomo. “But it’s great seeing him do what he did tonight and all this year. He’s already grown so much since week one, and I’m excited to see what he can do in the future.”
It also helped that the defense was its normal dominant force, which helps the offense play with ease. The main reason for the dominance is Guiducci.
“I think I’ve run out of words to describe Brandon,” Streblow laughed. “He’s just a stud. He’s just a great kid. I’m happy he’s on our team.”
He was a game wrecker like that of Micah Parsons on the Dallas Cowboys. After all, he swung the contest Justin-Siena’s favor at the 9:34 mark of the second quarter when he forced Dragons quarterback Trent Ohman to lose the ball, with Luke Guisto reaping the reward on a 19-yard fumble return.
Later on, Guiducci was also involved in another explosive play, this time on special teams. He blocked Max Harrison’s punt and Dallas Longwood took it to the house for a 15-yard return that made it 34-7 with 10:05 left in the game.
The Braves scored first in the game when Roman Williams rumbled into the end zone from 11 yards out with 8:12 left in the first. Williams carried the ball four times for 32 yards.
Sonoma Valley (3-3, 0-2 VVAL) got their lone score when Ohman found Hudson Giarritta for a 33-yard score.
“It was just kind of a mix-up in our cover, and it happens,” Steblow said of the lone score his Braves allowed. “They’re a good team. They throw the ball. They’re a spread, try to throw the ball around team. They’re good at it. That was a nice play. We just got beat. We got mixed up in coverage. It happens, we move on no big deal. Then I thought we really focused up and we clamped down the rest of the night.”
The Justin-Siena defense was also a force to be reckoned with in the game. They forced Ohman into many bad decisions and sacked him four times. They also forced three turnovers in the game. All of this was due to an increased emphasis on playing physically.
“It definitely was,” Guiducci said of the physical play. “Usually, we try to make sound, uniform tackles which we did tonight. But everyone was just laying hits tonight and that came with the energy.”
Up next for the Braves will be a trip to Memorial Stadium where they will meet Napa High next Friday night at 7 pm. Sonoma Vally will visit Casa Grande next Friday night as well.
In other VVAL action, Napa lost 52-6 to American Canyon and Petaluma beat Vintage 28-26.
