Football fun in July

A heaping helping of Casa Grande talent with sides of Petaluma and St. Vincent skill helped the South enjoy a victory feast in the 41st annual Richard Bigham Memorial High School All-Star football game sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Rosa.

In the past, the game has pitted the best of recently graduated players from the Sonoma County League against the best from the North Bay League. This year, the players were divided into North and South teams, with the North comprised of teams from Santa Rosa to Ukiah and the South made up of teams from Rancho Cotate to Petaluma.

Players from Casa Grande, Petaluma and St. ?Vincent all had a hand in the South’s dominating 28-14 victory last Saturday night at Santa Rosa High School.

Casa Grande’s All-NBL standouts Miles Gardea and Daniel Greisen were huge on both sides of the ball for the South.

Gardea, a tight end on offense, caught four passes for 62 yards and scored a touchdown. He joined Petaluma High’s Donovan Reece to form an aggressive inside linebacking duo that not only shut down the North running game, but also dropped back to bedevil the opposition’s aerial efforts.

Greisen, in addition to playing a strong game on the defensive front, was a key member of the South offense, providing lead blocking for Rancho Cotate’s Tanoa Peleti, gaining some tough yardage himself and grabbing three passes.

Casa’s Jonathon Weber made a leaping catch in the end zone for a touchdown and Gaucho teammate Zak Molina had two big catches.

St. Vincent’s Pat Garcia proved he could play with the big boys, making two pass interceptions.

The South, coached by Gehrig Hotaling and his Rancho Cotate staff, dominated the game from the beginning.

The muscular Peleti led the South on a 60-yard march midway through the first quarter, and when the yellow-clad southerners got close, Greisen carried them home, grabbing a pass that carried his side to the 3-yard line and plowing in from there.

Peleti gained 37 yards in the march, starting a big game that ended with him rushing for 89 yards against the tough North defense.

Sonoma Valley’s Mitch Hood, the only South quarterback, passed just two times in the drive, but was just getting started. Before he was finished, he had completed 19 of 30 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. His passing proficency earned him the game’s Most Valuable Player Award.

He got the South passing flying in his team’s next possession, completing four of five passes on a 56-yard drive capped by Gardea’s snare of an 8-yard throw for the touchdown.

The North, coached by John Antonio and his Piner staff, got its offense untracked early in the second quarter, with Montgomery’s Logan Francavilla running over a pair of South County defenders on his way to a 22-yard score. It was one of the few times the Viking back was able to find running room against the Gardea-Reece-led South defense.

Undaunted, the South came right back on a 57-yard drive that included a diving catch for a 22-yard gain by Molina. The touchdown came on a 15-yard connection between Hood and El Molino’s Travis McClintock. The Lion’s leaping catch as he tip-toed to remain in the end zone might have been the best on a night of spectacular catches.

With a 21-7 lead, the South was standing tall - for about 15 seconds. That was approximately how long it took for Ukiah’s Chandler Rickel to return Gardea’s kickoff back 72 yards to the South 11-yard line. Two plays later, Windsor’s Colin Mcalvain hit his Jaguar teammate Matt Basich with a 9-yard touchdown pass to keep their side in the game.

Just before the intermission, the South squandered an opportunity to take a comfortable lead into the locker room, riding the passing arm of Hood on an impressive drive from its 29-yard line to the North three.

But an illegal procedure penalty and a sack moved the South back to the 15 before Gardea sailed what might have been a 32-yard field goal wide left. As it turned out, it was only a brief moment of frustration for the Gaucho, who accounted for 10 South points with his touchdown and four PAT kicks.

The explosive first half was followed by a hard-hitting defense-dominated second half.

The teams mostly battled between the 30-yard lines with thrusts and counter thrusts that produced only one touchdown.

That came by the South about five minutes from the finish when Casa Grande’s Weber made a leaping catch of a Hood pass for a 17-yard touchdown to cap an impressive, and time-consuming 72-yard drive. The march was kept alive by an 18-yard Gardea reception of a Hood pass on a third-down play.

The foundation for that touchdown was placed by Garcia, whose second interception gave the South possession on the North side of the field.

The theft didn’t lead directly to the touchdown, but it did change what had been an even field-position battle and eventually put the South in a position to drive for the game-clinching score on Weber’s catch.

Petaluma’s Jeremy Speletta and Nick McCloskey helped seal the victory by sacking Piner’s Noel Hernandez at the North 10-yard line on a fourth-and-desperation play.

That sack put the South in a position for even more points with a first down at the North 10-yard line.

The opportunity proved unproductive as the South, with a multitude of substitutes in the game, could not punch the ball into the end zone in four running plays.

Reece had a chance to carry the ball for the first time in that sequence. His first effort was negated by an illegal procedure penalty, but in his next opportunity, he gained five tough yards against the North goal-line defense.

The North created a bit of closing excitement as time wound down with a pair of pass connections from Hernandez to Basich.

Although there were nine penalties, six on the South and three on the North, they were mostly the result of over enthusiasm and unfamiliarity with the systems.

Although hard hitting, the game was generally well played with solid sportsmanship shown on both sides.