Everything went according to plan for the Del Norte Warriors on Friday night, as they got the Big 4 off to a winning start, defeating St. Bernard’s 27-20 in Crescent City.
In truth, the game wasn’t as close as the final score would suggest, with the home team opening up a 27-6 lead in the third quarter on a 44-yard Kobe Mitchell TD run.
Mitchell led the way, finishing with 150 yards on the ground.
Quarterback OJ Calleja also had a big night, scoring a pair of TDs, the first on one-yard run and the second on a trick play on a fourth-and-nine pass from Chase Blackburn from 19 yards out.
Gio Gonzales also found the end zone on a 15-yard TD run midway through the second quarter, his fifth touchdown of the season.
Defensively, the Warriors controlled the tempo of the game, holding the St. Bernard’s big playmakers in check.
“Our game plan worked out on both sides of the ball,” Del Norte head coach Nick White said. “In terms of controlling the ball on offense and controlling possession, and defensively we wanted to take away (Lane) Thrap and (Justin) Hagler.”
A physical Del Norte line also set the tone.
“Our offensive line really played well in muddy, rainy conditions,” White said. “That ball control was huge, and we didn’t have any turnovers offensively.”
On the other side of the ball, the Warriors played as a unit.
“Defensively, overall we played really well as a group,” the head coach said. “Every kid did their job, their assignment.”
Controversy
For St. Bernard’s, it’s a game many feel the smallest school in the Humboldt-del Norte League should not have to play, and that the Crusaders should be included in the Little 4, a league they dominated for four years before getting moved up to bigger schools league last year.
The out-matched Crusaders were dominated physically along the line against the bigger school.
Head coach Matt Tomlin, however, was more than happy with how his players performed.
“I leave here with my head held high,” he said. “And I’m so proud of my kids.
“I’m proud of the way they stood in there and fought.”
The switch to the Big 4 remains a controversial move.
“I know there are some people sitting at home celebrating that this happened,” the coach added. “When you’re out-weighed on the offensive line by 60 to 80 pounds, that’s tough.
“But I’m going to look at the bright spots. My kids played so hard.”
Will Omey opened the scoring for St. Bernard’s on a one-yard TD run to tie the game at 6-6 late in the first quarter.
Omey also threw for a pair of second-half TDs, the first on a hook and ladder play that also involved Bode Joyner and Thrap, the latter of whom found the end zone.
Omey capped the scoring on a nine-yard touchdown pass to Logan Petrusha in the dying seconds, but Del Norte was able to recover the ensuing onside kick to seal the win.
Afterwards, Tomlin praised White for the job he’s doing in his first year as head coach, along with his brother, assistant coach Chris White.
“Del Norte is so well coached,” Tomlin said. “The White brothers are doing an outstanding job up there.”
With the win, the Warriors improved to 1-0 in the Big 4 and 7-1 overall, while the Crusaders dropped to 0-1 and 6-2.
Categories: Del Norte, Football, Sports, St. Bernard's
Coach Tomlin showed some class in his comments to both his hard fighting team and for the Del Norte coaches, especially considering he is not happy playing in a league composed of teams up to 10 times SB’s size.
Tomlin knows, as well as all the other AD’s in the HDNL that voted for the SB move, that this is not sustainable, not equitable, and in no way is fair to the student athletes at SB playing football. The HDNL should be considering the student athletes at schools within their responsibility, not playing politics or favorites as they appear to be doing currently.
If you were to pose the question: “Is it fair to have a team play in a league that is composed of teams 10 times their size because they won their existing league 4 years in a row?” Guaranteed 9 out of 10 respondents would say No.
SB has had no JV team for the past two years, so there current team is composed of all four grades, other teams in the Big 4 have JV teams and their Varsity teams are composed of juniors and seniors. A huge difference when entering the 3rd and 4th quarters especially with respect to football, and the opposing teams have up to 40 players and SB has around 26!!
Completely absurd to force SB to continue to deal with this situation!!
The HDNL should be ashamed of themselves as well as the AD’s in the league that approved this move.
Rubbish: “especially considering he is not happy playing in a league composed of teams up to 10 times SB’s size.”
Bill, wth are you squawking about?
If it is a complaint about “size”, is it weight, size of student body, etc…
If it is weight, then parents should feed their kids more instead of practicing lent…
If it is school size of student body populus, then recruit more students…although religion is not popular like it once was…
Personally, leagues should be filled by teams with comparable student populus…
It is pathetic to complain that smaller schools have smaller kids…as if size of school equates to size of players…some of the most obese, fattest kids ever go to small schools too, so the size argument falls on deaf ears…
Will agree coach comments were par for the course…
“although religion is not popular like it once was…”
Actually, over half the world’s present population practices one of the three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). And I see that much of Bill’s comment went completely over your head.
If your parents had had the good sense to enroll you in my school perhaps you would be doing something more with your life than bloviating every week on a high school sports website in a small, isolated county…
That has Jack Lakin stink all over it.
RH, could you provide info for next HDNL board elections/appointments…Henchy will throw his hat into the ring…fix everything sports in HDNL…
St. Bernard commenter…typical druid denialist…guess 2 dummies can’t configure : “especially considering he is not happy playing in a league composed of teams up to 10 times SB’s size.”
Which is it folks: weight, team size, school size…
As far as religion goes, someone deflected to world religion…sorry, but EUREKA, USA is not “The World”…typical religious sect response to deny locally religion is loosing popularity…lent was a real easy clue to boot…
Esq. “Former altar boy”…
Bloviating is support, interest in achievements and failures, learning …maybe religious losers should refrain from writing smack…but hey, religious types are so convincing… go to a seminary school to be educated by doctrine…hell no…
Bloviate: apparently the religious sect druids are AOK bloviating everyday to the student body during every classroom, mandatory actually, but on the outside of their precious template of crackpotisms, it is bad to bloviate outside the classroom…
Bloviate to your hearts content folks, if ya’ll support your communities locally…and support this blog to your hearts content, there are comment boxes and reply buttons to the original comment, etc…or, be the quiet type that really does not care to advance local sports, a local sports network or to engage and have healthy, but factual dialogue, including criticism… it is all fun and educational…
Henchy takes criticism similar to taking a crap…wipe the bs away with TP and flush…
Henchman,
It is size of school that I was discussing, not size of players. I had commented earlier in response but for some reason that posting was never posted by Ray.
You were right on it when you said “Leagues should be filled by teams with comparable student populous…”
That is exactly what I have been saying all season.
Bottom line: League is decided on size of school enrollment, not on school record in a sport!
End of Story. Jack Lakin and the HDNL has got this wrong, not sustainable, not fair all know it, just afraid to do something about it.