Logwood, Sangiacomo put team on back to lead Justin-Siena past Napa in rainy nail-biter
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
A strong running game be very helpful when the weather is crummy. After all, it’s all you have to lean on when throwing the football is like a science experiment gone wrong.
On Friday night’s Redwood Empire-Valley matchup, Justin-Siena used their running game to open things up and beat Napa High, 26-21, in a rainy night at North Napa’s Dodd Stadium.
After all, running the ball was a necessity with the bad conditions. Grinding out yards on the ground all night was Dallas Logwood. He got Justin-Siena (3-6, 1-5 REC-Valley) going early on and kept them in the game all night long as he churned out 119 yards on the ground on 26 carries.
“It’s always in our game plan,” Justin-Siena head coach Tyler Streblow said of the strong running game. “Sometimes maybe I abandoned it a little bit too quickly. But the guys up front did a really good job and the weather dictated it. I think it was super impressive, because, you know, a lot of times our passing game opens up our run game. Tonight, it was pretty obvious we were running the ball.”
Logwood also found the end zone to get the Braves on the board with 4:33 left in the first half on a 20-yard sprint to paydirt.
He also scored from a yard out with 4:06 left in the third to keep Justin-Siena in the game.
Despite the sloppy conditions, Sangiacomo opened up the passing game in the second half for some big plays. There were none bigger than when he rolled out to his left and threw across his body downfield to a wide-open Alex Ruiz to give the Braves their first lead with 11:04 left in the game.
As if that wasn’t enough, he again came up clutch with the game on the line very late. This time, he found an open Luke Ficeli on a slant for a 34-yard score with just 1:08 left in the game.
“Drew made some absolutely great throws,” Streblow explained. “We talked about it at halftime. We said ‘Hey, we’re going to have to hit a couple of these if we can.’ We just got the right look and the right call, and Drew made two great throws.”
In the contest, Sangiacomo completed 10 of 19 passes for 149 yards.
This was also a much-needed win for the Braves who began the season with a pair of wins out of the chute and then went on a six-game losing streak, which was snapped on Friday night.
“Yeah we’ve had, we’ve, we’ve had three games, basically, in the fourth quarter, where we’ve been in the game, and we’ve had a big call go against us in terms of illegal formation or whatever,” Streblow added. “So just the resolve, I think, for them to score there, after all the things that happened, is what I’m the most proud of. Just never giving up because we’ve had some stuff kind of just not go our way.”
Meanwhile, Napa (0-9, 0-5 REC-Valley) was able to bring back a look from the days of old to its running game in the contest, churning out 245 yards on the ground.
However, the one thing that stood out about this ground attack was the two distinct styles of running the team used all night with their ball carriers.
In the game, Junior Nogales carried the rock 21 times for 143 yards while accounting for all three of the Grizzlies’ scores.
“He’s a great player,” Napa High head coach Chris Harris said of Nogales. “ He definitely allows us to be that dual threat. We couldn’t throw the ball tonight in the pouring down rain.”
His first came with 1:05 left in the first quarter on a 6-yard score to give Napa a 7-0 lead.
Then, Nogales scored on a long 40-yard play with 8:07 left in the first half to give the Grizzlies a 14-0 lead.
Lastly, Nogales plunged into the end zone with 4:50 to go in the game on a 6-yard score to give Napa a 21-18 lead.
Also toting the rock in the game for Napa was Josue Victorino. The junior running back rushed 21 times for 102 yards but didn’t find the end zone in the game.
“Excited for him for sure,” Harris said of Victorino’s strong game. “We’ve got to figure out a way to finish though. We had a chance. Didn’t finish, so gotta finish.”
Both teams will be back in action next week. Justin-Siena will host Novato in a non-league game to end their season on Friday at 7 pm. As for Napa, they’ll visit Tamalpias in Mill Valley on Saturday at 2 pm.
