Trojans falter in loss to Windsor

Visiting Jaguars' strong third quarter results in 21-9 victory|

Explosive Windsor rallied in the third quarter for a pair of game-turning touchdowns to hold off upset-minded Petaluma, 21-9, on Friday in the first game of the season for both teams.

The home-standing Trojans made things interesting with a time-consuming ground game, and trailed only 7-3 until the Jaguars gradually wore them down after intermission. Still, the Petaluma offense ran 11 more plays from scrimmage than the Jaguars.

Petaluma pounded away between the Jaguar tackles with short gainers by Lucas Dentoni and occasional keepers by quarterback Brandon White. A few scattered pass completions and some key pitches to running back Luke Wheless helped keep the ball out of the hands of the quick-striking Windsor offense.

A game-opening drive from the Trojan 20-yard line wound up with a 38-yard field goal off the foot of Isiah Blomgren and a 3-0 lead before Windsor had its first series with the ball. A 21-yard pitch play to Wheless kept the drive alive, together with a key completion from White to Harrison Royall.

First-year Jaguar coach Tom Fitzpatrick finally got his chance to inject some up-tempo offense into the contest as Windsor went without a huddle. A 10-play march resulted in a touchdown late in the first quarter.

Early penalties served only to slow down the Jaguars as they took the lead for good on a 3-yard run by David Escracega. It was the first of two scores by the junior running back.

Windsor finally began to take control of the contest by scoring twice in the third quarter on a pass completion by lefty Max Brown and a 42-yard dash by Escracega.

The Jaguars missed on another golden scoring opportunity when a long reverse pass slipped through the grasp of a retreating wide receiver who had separated from the Trojan defensive backs by at least 10 yards.

Brown wound up accounting for 133 yards in his first start as the Windsor quarterback.

Petaluma stayed true to its running game by putting a final drive in motion that spilled over into the final quarter.

Short runs by Dentoni and four pass completions by White keyed the only touchdown march of the game by the Trojans.

Following a 13-yard hookup to Wheless, the Trojans kept it on the ground as White faked a fullback dive into the line and slanted 2 yards into the end zone. A 2-point PAT attempt failed, and Petaluma fell short of double figures.

It was the first victory for Fitzpatrick as coach of Windsor, but he was a bit disappointed with the offensive execution of his club.

“We will have to work on that,” said Fitzpatrick, who ran a successful grid program at Healdsburg for two decades.

Petaluma might have had something to do with that by rolling up 210 yards with a time-consuming offense. White accounted for 96 yards on occasional passes to keep drives alive. His favorite receiver was Wheless who also added 40 yards on the ground.

Diminutive defensive backs Royall and Wheless also disrupted the Jaguar offense by picking off passes deep in the Trojan secondary.

Trojan coach Rick Krist was pleased with the overall play of his defense.

“We made a couple of mistakes, but overall the effort was there. Wheless, Royall, Tyler Williams, Nick Dorn and Travis Plank all played well. We did make one bad error in coverage. but it was our first game.

“Offensively our kids faced a good game plan by Windsor,” Krist added. “They knew before the season what kind of offense we run and they defended it well. Lucas Dentoni had to work for everything up the middle, but he is going to be fine. Running the ball is who we are.”

Dentoni ran the ball 17 times for 34 yards, while White had a team-high 41 yards on 14 keepers.

Windsor dominated the quickly played junior varsity contest by shutting out Petaluma 18-0.

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