NBL beats SCL Stars, 36-7

<p>The dream game turned into a nightmare for the Sonoma County League in the second half Saturday night.</p><p>Leading 7-0 at the end of the first half, the SCL made a whole string of costly mistakes in the third quarter and was defeated by the North Bay League, 31-7, in the 37th annual Richard Bigham Memorial All-Star Football game presented by the Santa Rosa Kiwanis Club. The game matches the best of the recently graduated SCL stars against the best of the NBL's class of 2010.</p><p>The game, held before a good-size crowd at Santa Rosa High School, was a contest of contrasts between a well-played first half and a second half of SCL mistakes that the NBL was quick to exploit.</p><p>In quick succession at the outset of the second half, the NBL scored on two touchdown passes by Montgomery's Max Heller, one coming after the SCL ignored a kickoff that was recovered by the NBL deep in SCL territory. </p><p>Before the SCL-disastrous third quarter ended, Montgomery's Austin Shull scooped up a punt that apparently no one wanted and raced 55 yards for a touchdown.</p><p>Shull capped off the NBL victory by returning a pass interception 30 yards for a final NBL score.</p><p>The game was marred by injuries to NBL kicker Kameron Rose of Montgomery and SCL running back Sean Sullivan of Petaluma.</p><p>Rose was hurt when his attempted 31-yard field goal was blocked.</p><p>Sullivan, who was on his way to a big game, suffered a back bruise on the first offensive play of the game, but continued to play, gaining 42 yards on six carries in the first half.</p><p>Late in the second quarter, he helped set up the SCL's first, and, as it turned out, only touchdown with one of his typical this-way, that-way runs, good for 17 yards and a first down on the NBL 13-yard line.</p><p>He was bulldogged at the end of his dash and, as he was going down, belted in the back on his earlier bruise. He came off the field in obvious pain and didn't return. </p><p>“Losing Sean hurt us a lot,” noted SCL coach Trent Herzog of Casa Grande. “It took away our outside threat.</p><p>“We made a couple of big plays in the first half, but we made too many mistakes in the second half. It was a fun two weeks, but things didn't go the way we wanted in the game.”</p><p>The SCL went three plays and punt in its first possession, and the NBL immediately got its opponents attention by employing a hurry-up offensive assault that carried it from its own 36 to the SCL 17 before a clutch tackle by Petaluma's Braeden Ross on a third-down pass play stalled the drive. </p><p>Rose's field goal try ended in his injury, and the game settled into a defensive battle. </p><p>Late in the first half, Casa Grande's Alan Vargas stepped in front of a Heller pass and raced 40 yards for an apparent SCL touchdown. </p><p>However, the SCL was flagged for a personal foul on the play, and had 1:22 to reach the goal from the NBL 30-yard line. Sullivan got more than half the needed yardage on his twisting, darting run that ended with the ball at the 13 and the ball carrier out of the game. </p><p>Petaluma's Ricky Sims squeezed forward for three yards, and Casa Grande's Kahlil Keys battled into the end zone from there, diving for the final yard. Keys ended as the SCL's leading ground gainer, with 52 yards rushing. </p><p>Analy's Sal Torres booted the extra point to give the SCL a 7-0 halftime lead. </p><p>The second half was all NBL.</p><p>Piner's Michael Mook capped a 55-yard NBL march to start the second half by reversing field and scrambling six yards for a touchdown. A Heller pass to Montgomery teammate Brandon Blank provided a two-point conversion, and an 8-7 NBL lead.</p><p>The SCL quickly went three and punt, and Heller rapidly threw the NBL back down field. Heller, for the game, was 17 of 28 for 102 yards. On a 66-yard march, he completed three of four passes, with the last one going six yards to Piner's John Rickard, who made a leaping catch in the end zone. </p><p>With things looking bad for the SCL, they quickly got worse. The NBL kickoff fell between three would-be SCL returners, and while they debated the situation, the NBL recovered on the 18-yard line, and it took Heller just one play to throw to Blank for the third NBL touchdown. </p><p>Before the third quarter had ended, the SCL had another discussion around a short punt before Shull raced in, picked it up and was gone 45 yards for his side's fourth touchdown of the quarter. </p><p>There was one last hurrah for the NBL side when Shull picked off a pass and romped 31 unmolested yards to close out the night and the high school season for players on both sides.</p>