Justin-Siena dominates line of scrimmage to beat Salesian and punch ticket to second straight CIF North Coast Section title game
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you start the season, one of the main goals is to practice on Thanksgiving. At that point, it’s been a great season.
With their 15-0 win over Salesian College Prep on Friday night, the Justin-Siena football team will be practicing over the holiday to prepare for the CIF North Coast Section Division 6 championship game.
“Last year, I loved it,” Justin-Siena senior running back Roman Williams explained. “I’m not really a morning person, but waking up in the morning to play football is just amazing. To do it on Thanksgiving, where before and my family tradition we’d always play football and like the street and have to like wait for cars. So it’s so nice, like actually play football in the morning on Thanksgiving, and not have to worry about cars or anything and you just get to walk around and play football. It’s amazing.”
Coming in, the No. 3 seed Braves viewed this one as a revenge game after Salesian beat them in the title game last year 28-26.
“It feels good because last year I knew we had them,” Williams said of beating Salesian after coming up just short last season. “I was just so disappointed we couldn’t finish last year. But this year, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I knew the team we had was gonna be able to stop them. I knew our defense is going to be able to stop them, and we showed out and I’m very happy.”
Another reason the Braves got another hard-earned victory was Williams. The senior pounded the rock 15 times and rushed for 152 yards.
The majority of those yards came on one 98-yard touchdown run after the defense had just kept the Pride (6-6) out of the end zone on a 4th and goal from the 2, which led to the Williams long run. That run came with just 3:40 left in the first half.
Initially, the goal of the run was to move the ball away from the end zone. Instead, Williams saw the field open up and he was able to scamper down the sideline untouched for the score.
“I was in the end zone. I was sitting there like, ‘don’t get a safety. Get out of the end zone,’,” Williams said of his long touchdown run that swung the momentum instantly. “I was looking for just five yards. Butt the moment I got the ball, I saw my line open up a huge hole and I knew they had it for me. They were the ones that opened the Red Sea for me, and it was beautiful. They made it so I didn’t have to go up against multiple people. Instead, I just had to go up against one, and they allowed me to get the big run. I’m forever grateful for my line.”
Justin-Siena was able to go up 8-0 on a broken play where the snap hit the ground and kicker Parker Schuman picked it up and took it to the end zone.
Williams accounted for all of the game’s offense as he later scored from 8 yards out with 7:16 left in the third. Another thing that made it even more impressive was that the line was pieced together due to players being out with the flu.
“He imposed his will,” Justin-Siena first-year head coach Tyler Streblow said of Williams. “We had some guys moving around. Our tight end had to play left tackle. Some guys that normally don’t play were in there.”
You also can’t talk about this game without talking about the Braves’ defense who got their sixth shutout of the season in this one. They were able to do it by sacking Pride quarterback Marcus Burke three times while also forcing an interception due to pressure. They also forced running back Zae Latigue to fumble early in the game. In the game, they held Salesian’s rushing attack to just 109 yards as well as just 45 through the air.
Time and location will be announced on Saturday for next week’s section title game where Justin-Siena will take on the winner of No. 1 Saint Mary’s-Albany and No. 4 seed Pinole Valley. You can view the updated CIF NCS Division 6 bracket here.
