RICHMOND — The North Coast Section Division 6 championship game between Justin-Siena and Salesian seemed to be over at halftime Saturday afternoon, as the Pride had carved up the visiting Braves and sported a 22-0 lead.
Leading top-seeded Salesian were offensive linemen who would be the dream of any run-based offense. Many clocked in at 6-foot-3 and over 275 pounds, about 5 inches and 100 pounds bigger than Justin-Siena’s linemen.
Yet twice inside the game’s final four minutes, the third-seeded Braves had the ball and were driving for a chance at the title-clinching score. Unfortunately for Justin-Siena, a deep, fourth-down pass by Zach Zurowski bound for the end zone hit the artificial turf with less than 40 seconds on the clock.
The celebration began for Salesian players the instant the ball hit the ground as the Pride escaped with a 28-26 victory over Justin-Siena.
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“I’m proud of the effort we gave, and that's all us — everyone on this team. It’s all heart. We gave everything we could whenever we could,” Justin-Siena lineman Giancarlo Guerrero said. “They got a little overconfident and we took advantage of that in the second half. We were just one or two plays off from getting it, but I’m very proud of this team. It’s gonna be tough for a little bit but I'll never forget this team. These are my brothers now.”
After being punched in the mouth in the first half, it wouldn’t have been out of the question for Justin-Siena to pack it in. But this year's Braves had a never-ending will to fight deep in their DNA, a will rarely seen in most programs, one usually brought on by a special tight-knit bond.
Practicing on Thanksgiving and playing in the section title game is a feat most high school players will never accomplish, but the Braves used every play in the book to attempt the magical comeback. From wide receiver passes to kickoff returns, killer cardio and even potentially the perfect onside kick, they left everything they had on Selway-Martin Field and came home to Napa with the respect of the small school power from Richmond.
“This team has been a group of fighters since we started. No matter what game we play, no matter what the score has been, these guys never quit,” Justin-Siena head coach Brandon LaRocco said. “They don't tap out. They just fight. I think it's infectious when the other guys see the leaders on your team go all four quarters until they can't go anymore — until we have to take them off the field, and then that sets the tone for everybody else and it sets the expectation. I think that's what we saw here in the second half.”
The magic began early in the third quarter when the Braves (7-6) started to mix up their offensive attack. The Pride (9-2) had done a phenomenal job of containing Justin-Siena star athlete Caden Parlett, as the senior running back was consistently stopped at the line of scrimmage all afternoon. Outside of having monster offensive and defensive lines, Salesian also had two linebackers who were bigger than any Justin-Siena linemen. The 5-foot-8 Parlett had little chance against athletes twice his size who quickly weaved their way into the Justin-Siena backfield to tackle the speedster.
The Braves decided to attack quick passing routes and a hole in the middle of the field. Zurowski completed a 21-yard pass to Miles Martin and an 8-yard slant to Josiyah Maddalone to set up a 41-yard touchdown pass to Robby Sangiacomo down the right sideline. Parlett was stopped at the line of scrimmage on the two-point-conversion to keep it 22-6.
“Yeah we knew we couldn’t end our season on that first half,” Guerrero said. “All season long we’ve been fighting, grinding. We don’t know how to give up.”
While the Salesian offense in the first half resembled a lush cut from the House of Prime Rib in San Francisco, the second half took a page out of the Denny’s dinner menu. It worked, but it wasn’t pretty and didn’t go very far. Be it the perfect warm Saturday afternoon weather or thinking ahead to next week's NorCal Bowl opponent, the Pride struggled on offense while the smaller Justin-Siena defenders continued to win battles in the trenches.
Salesian 28, Justin-Siena 26
“Conditioning is one of the biggest parts of our program and we do it after every practice,” Gianni Natuzzi said. “We know we have to fight as long as we can, so conditioning is the best way to do that.”
Salesian was forced to punt on three straight quick drives. After the second one, the Braves opened their bag of tricks. Zurowski took a shotgun snap while Maddalone was in motion from left to right. The quarterback pitched the ball to the junior and the wide receiver hurled a perfect pass down field to a wide-open Eric Gutierrez for a 55-yard touchdown. But the two-point-conversion attempt was stuffed just short again, keeping the Braves 10 points behind.
Justin-Siena hoped to pull within one score late in the fourth quarter, but a fumbled snap was snapped up by the Pride. Salesian started the fourth quarter with the ball but again struggled to deal with the Braves’ defense and seemed to be low on gas.
“We're not gonna be out-conditioned by anybody else. We take a lot of pride in that,” LaRocco said. “I give a lot of credit to Coach Diano (Pachote), our assistant strength coach who handles the in-season conditioning. Nobody's gonna outlast us. That's not how you're going to beat us. You might out-physical us, but you're not gonna outlast us. I told the guys at the half, ‘Look, survive the early punches and they're gonna get tired and you are not, because this is what we trained for.’ So I think our conditioning played the biggest factor, between the weight room and the running we do after practice. It just made the difference in that fourth quarter.”
The Pride turned the ball over on downs with just under 10 minutes remaining, and the Braves went to work on offense. Sangiacomo was Justin-Siena’s main target on the first drive of the fourth quarter. Zurowski hit the tight end three separate times, each for a first down to keep the drive alive. On the first play in the Pride’s red zone, Zurowski performed a perfect fake, appearing to give the ball to Parlett before pulling it at the last second and breezing in untouched for a 14-yard touchdown around the left side. Sangiacomo blast the extra point attempt through the uprights to pull the Braves within 22-19.
Salesian attempted to stop Justin-Siena’s momentum but only added to it when quarterback Nicholas Fontanilla was sacked for a 15-yard loss. The Pride were forced to punt with 4:53 remaining and the Braves took over at their own 41.
After a couple of quick plays, the Braves went for a deep pass. But the ball was nabbed out of the air by cornerback Paul Victor. The junior intercepted the ball around Salesian’s 35-yard line and returned it to the Braves 30. The Pride used six straight rushing plays to find the end zone for their lone score of the second half, on a Fontanilla 4-yard rush with 54 seconds left.
“I think it's important to recognize our senior linemen, Braden Snoke, Gianni Natuzzi, Giancarlo Guerrero, Samuel Gomez and Jordan Craig,” LaRocco said. “All those guys are willing to take the lumps for the rest of the team to be successful. Being a lineman is always tough, and being an undersized lineman is even harder. When you face the amount of physical run teams that we do, it’s even harder — and they never backed down and never tapped out. They just stayed in there fighting and battled and battled. All the love to all of the seniors. Those guys don’t get enough recognition.”
Although Salesian was up 28-19, the magic wasn’t completely gone for Justin-Siena as Maddalone received a squib kick at the Braves’ 45. The junior bounced to the outside and took it 55 yards to the house, and another Sangiacomo extra point pulled Justin-Siena within a field goal of winning the game.
With 46 seconds remaining, the Braves had sophomore kicker Parker Schuemann attempt an onside kick. Schuemann, pulled up from junior varsity for the postseason, was a special weapon for the Braves. The JV program almost exclusively did onside kicks this season and Pachote remarked before the kick that Schuemann was pretty good at them. The 2013 Justin-Siena alumnus was correct, as Schuemann executed it perfectly. The ball rapidly bounced the correct distance and ricocheted off a Salesian returner’s chest. Martin jumped on the ball to give the Braves four more chances for a game-winning score.
The Braves were stopped on first down after a broken play and an injury timeout ensued. In the confusion of the timeout, the ball was spiked on second down. The best chance for the Braves was on third down, as Zurowski was looking for Gutierrez, but the pass was just past the outstretched arms of the senior wideout. The final play of Justin-Siena’s season was similar to the third-down call, with a deep Zurowski pass just missing the mark.
That’s when it began to sink in for the Braves’ seniors that their high school football journey had ended.
“I’ll never forget just these bonds, the bonds you build with your teammates and your coaches,” Guerrero said. “When I first joined this program and I was on JV, I met tons of new people. Now they’re my brothers. I love them all, and the bonds with these coaches, man, they'll never fade.”
Added Natuzzi, “The brotherhood between us will always be a thing. We’re all best friends. I’m going to remember this team forever and I’ll remember all the work we had to do. It’s going to be sad walking off this field, but I am going to be proud of us.”
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