The St. Bernard’s Crusaders came up just short in their bid for a sixth all-time North Coast Section championship in football over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t another successful season for the team.
The Crusaders fell 42-20 to Miramonte in the Division-5 championship game, but this was a season that saw them win a first-ever Big 4 championship and post a pair of very impressive playoff wins against schools far larger than St. Bernard’s.
“I think there’s a lot to celebrate about this team and the success we had,” head coach Matt Tomlin said. “(Winning the Big 4) was a major accomplishment for a school our size, so we’re really proud of that.”
The Crusaders, who shared the conference title with Fortuna and Del Norte, opened the NCS postseason with back-to-back wins over Terra Linda (45-7) and Analy (49-0).
“They’re schools eight times the size of our school and to win as convincingly as we did …,” Tomlin said of his team’s playoff opponents. “That was exciting.”
This year’s SB team also succeeded with a lot of young players playing key positions, including three starting freshmen down the stretch of the season.
Freshman quarterback Trenten Hagler split time all season under center with sophomore Luke Brunton and both players performed well beyond their years, while fellow freshmen Garrett Shanahan (receiver/DB) and lineman Josh Tinkham each also looked comfortable playing at the varsity level.
“And all three of them played well,” Tomlin said of the starting freshmen.
It was the team’s seniors, however, who really set the tone, including running back/defensive end Wyatt Simoni who had a season for the ages.
The standout senior finished with 37 touchdowns and 15 sacks and six forced fumbles.
His touchdown and sack totals were both second best in the entire NCS.
“Wyatt Simoni had one of the best seasons in the history of the H-DNL,” the head coach said.
He got plenty of help from a core group of linemen, including co-captains Jonathan Cortez, Kyler Smith and Lane Ford.
File photos – Wyatt Simoni
“They were the foundation of our team,” Tomlin said of the physically dominating trio.
Ford, however, was one of two key linemen to suffer an injury in Saturday’s section championship game, along with Hunter Floyd, and a small school program like SB’s just didn’t have the depth to compensate.
“I’m proud of our kids,” Tomlin said. “We sustained a couple of really serious injuries but the kids kept battling and stayed in the game till late in the third quarter before the game got away from us.”
In his final high school football game, Simoni finished with 109 yards and a TD on 23 carries.
Receiver Aaiden Burris also scored on a 68-yard TD reception and finished with 123 yards on four catches.
Hagler completed 5 of 10 passes for 106 yards and a pair of TDs.
The Crusaders closed out the season with a record of 9-4.
File photo
Categories: Football, St. Bernard's
Wow what a season Crusaders!!! Very impressive to have gone that far in the playoffs against schools 8 times or more as big as SB.
I don’t think that it is equitable for SB to have to compete against these bigger schools in the playoffs. Why is this happening, and why is SB not allowed to play schools in the same enrollment class as they are???
Bill,
Go to the NCS website and search a term called “competitive equity”. It should answer your question.
It’s also not equitable for public schools to have to compete with private schools that can recruit. Look back 4 years and see how many of the current roster were at St. B when they were Freshman. I’m pretty sure the O and D lines are all recruits. There is always someone complaining about St B being so small when you lose. But honestly everyone in Humboldt who is familiar with High School sports wants to hear it because St B has taken kids from most of the Schools down there. And for the record they aren’t taking Scholars, they are taking athletes. And that is a testament to their athletic programs. They have good coaches that can draw kids to transfer there and play. They still have to sit out games after they transfer but the bottom
Line is if you take those kids that have transferred from other Humboldt schools off this years roster and play the season without them you would see what fair and equitable really is.