It was a tough start to the new football season for a very young Hoopa team over the weekend.
The Warriors featured three freshmen and four sophomores and traveled to Trinity, where they lost 42-16.
They trailed by four touchdowns (28-0) at halftime as the game got away from them early.
“They were just struggling out there in the trenches,” first-year head coach Tashone Rice said of his players. “(Trinity) played real physical ball.”
Rice said the blame for the loss rests with him.
“I’ll take responsibility,” he said. “In reality I didn’t put them in the right place.”
The Hoopa players, to their credit, continued to battle in the second half despite the sizable deficit and they matched their hosts with a pair of TDs over the final two quarters.
Junior quarterback Torin Billings accounted for both of his team’s touchdowns, connecting with receiver Jonathan Peralta on a five-yard pass for the opening score and adding an eight-yard TD run later in the half.
The athletic Billings evaded pressure all night long.
“He was very impressive, very athletic,” Rice said of Billings. “He was pressured a lot and he didn’t get sacked once.”
Billings finished the night with 111 yards passing and 33 rushing.
Peralta also had an impact and finished with 140 all-purpose yards, while fellow junior Jack Marshall added 98 all-purpose yards.
But the home team’s dominance in the trenches proved decisive.
“We’re still growing. We’re new to each other,” Rice said. “The communication is still getting there, and that’s a big deal in football. We’re still getting that down.”
The team’s only returner on the line is Saul Peralta and the unit’s inexperience showed.
“We were not fully expecting how physical that game would be,” Rice added.
Despite the struggles there were some bright spots for the Warriors, including Saul Peralta, who provided the defensive highlight of the game with an interception after Willie Simms put pressure on the Trinity quarterback.
Junior team captain Ashton Vigil also impressed the coach with some tough running, but he was consistently met at the line of scrimmage.
Manny Peralta had some good moments on the line, as did Simms, while junior lineman Ryder Duncan “worked his tail off,” according to the head coach.
The Warriors will try to bounce back when they travel to play Healdsburg this weekend, before a bye the following weekend.
They close out their pre-H-DNL schedule at Archie Francis in San Anselmo on Sept. 19 before playing their first home game of the year against St. Bernard’s later in the month.
