Mustangs undefeated champions

It depends on how you look at things. From the Tomales perspective, a beautiful beginning turned ugly in the second half. From the St. Vincent perspective, a bad beginning turned glorious in the second half.

No matter how you look at it, St. Vincent soundly beat Tomales, 49-12, on a fall-perfect Saturday afternoon to win outright the North Central League II football championship.

The win was the second of the season over the Braves for the Mustangs, who finished the regular season with a 6-4 record, with all six wins coming against their three league foes. Tomales finished at 7-3, 4-2 in league, with both league losses administered by St. Vincent. Both teams now advance to the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs.

Saturday’s showdown on Senior Day at St. Vincent was a tale of two halves.

Tomales did what Tomales does in the first half, wedging in tight and running right at the Mustangs with a time-chomping, yardage-eating running attack. The Mustangs couldn’t stop the Brave rampage, fell behind, 12-0, and were still trailing at the half, 12-7.

St. Vincent did what St. Vincent does in the second half, opening up the field and using long runs and pinpoint passing to score almost at will.

Player numbers played a part in the Mustang win. St. Vincent went into the game with a 32-man roster, minus a couple of inactive injured players, while Tomales had only 16 healthy bodies for the contest.

“They are bigger, stronger and have more depth than we do. They are a good football team.” acknowledged Tomales coach Leon Felicano.

But another large part of the Mustang success was changes they made at halftime.

“They changed some things from the way they blocked in the first game we played them,” explained St. Vincent coach Gary Galloway. “Justin (defensive coordinator Justin Galloway) made some changes at halftime and our defensive linemen and linebackers were able to make better reads. The key for us was stopping them and getting our offense on the field.”

Tomales ran 38 plays for 172 yards in the first half, but only 15 for 30 yards in the second.

St. Vincent had just one ball possession in the first quarter and only three in the second. One of those lasted just one play before it was terminated by a pass interception by the Braves’ Andres Cuevas.

The first time the Braves had the football, the Mustangs halted them after just one first down, but the next time they claimed possession they hogged it for almost seven minutes, crunching 65 yards to score as the second quarter began. The drive was accomplished mostly by Tomales’ familiar infantry assault, but when the Braves got close, Tomales quarterback Joel Gutierrez shocked the Mustangs by passing nine yards to Jacob Sampietro, who stretched to make the catch in the end zone.

St. Vincent stopped Tomales’ attempt to run for a two-point conversion, a play that looked big at the time, but ultimately made little difference.

The Brave shock and awe continued on St. Vincent’s first play from scrimmage following the touchdown when Sampietro picked off a pass from St. Vincent quarterback Dominic Pedersen that looked like it had been intended for his reception.

Back charged the Braves, going 56 yards in 15 plays. The drive was kept alive early by a perfectly executed fake punt, with Andres Cuevas scampering 15 yards for a first down, and survived late when a pass interception was nullified by a penalty. Gutierrez sneaked in for the score from the 1-yard line. Again the PAT failed, but the Braves were riding high with a 12-0 lead.

St. Vincent finally flickered its offense to life just before the half, with Petersen and George Sammon working a screen pass for a 13-yard touchdown.

Anthony Garcia-Dedoya kicked the extra point to leave the midpoint score at 12-7.

The game went into a different dimension in the second half. Tomales could do nothing right, and St. Vincent couldn’t be stopped.

St. Vincent went 51 yards to score on a nine-yard pass from Pedersen to Kyle Dannewitz, who made a perfect over-the-shoulder catch in the end zone. Garcia-Bedoya booted the extra point and St, Vincent was ahead for good at 14-12.

The second half surge was led by Sammon, who ran over a few Braves and away from the rest on his way to an outstanding 204-yard rushing day on just 12 carries. He averaged 17 yards a carry and scored three rushing touchdowns in addition to his first-half receiving score.

Sammon was able to spring into the Brave secondary because of strong up-front blocking from Will Tarrant, Justin Sablik, Tyler Schmidt, Connor Carr and Jack Gatfield. Once rolling, the Mustangs became an unstoppable force.

Rapidly, Zach Sitchler scored on a 40-yard pass from Pedersen, Sammon broke a 39-yard run, a 49-yard run and a 38-yard run for touchdowns and then retired for the day.

“We did what we wanted to do which was to go undefeated in league,” he said. “At half we knew we just needed to get motivated - to do something to kind of start us off.”

Manny Reyes finished the scoring with a 16-yard touchdown run.

St. Vincent held Tomales’ 1,000-yard rusher Will Lepori to 70 yards, but hard-running Ivan Gomez picked up some of the slack with 51 yards in 13 carries.