Saturday looks like Friday the 13th for SV

St. Vincent over matched in football loss to Williams.|

Last Saturday was Friday the 13th for a St. Vincent Mustang football team that galloped under a ladder and lost its lucky shoe in the process.

Everything went wrong for the Mustangs in a 50-0 loss to Williams’ hard-stinging Yellowjackets, a big, athletic and fast team from Colusa County. The biggest problem St. Vincent had was that Williams is simply a better football team.

“They are where we want to get to with our program,” said St. Vincent coach Trent Herzog.

That said, St. Vincent did not play at its best.

“We did not play our game,” explained Herzog. “They are a good football team, but we made them look better than they actually are. I was disappointed with out effort.”

The loss was the second straight for St. Vincent after opening the season with four straight wins. The Mustangs face another test for their homecoming game Saturday (2 p.m. kickoff) against replacement opponent Piner from the North Bay League. Piner replaces Oakland Military Academy on the St. Vincent schedule after the East Bay School canceled its season.

Williams, now 3-2 on the season, will be home to Mt. Shasta on Friday.

Adding a shadow to a gloomy game played in the glare of a hot autumn afternoon was the early loss of St. Vincent’s best all-around player - lineman/linebacker Giovanni Antonini. He left in the first quarter with a shoulder injury. His availability for Saturday’s game was unknown earlier this week.

Without their leader, and despite gutsy efforts from sophomore Shamus Edens and senior A.J. Fetter, the Mustangs were no match for the Yellowjacket speed either catching passes or rushing with the football.

Fetter was credited with 15 tackles, 10 solo and two for loss. In addition, he moved from tight end to the interior line on offense to help bolster St. Vincent blocking.

Williams scored on its first possession on a 31-yard pass from talented senior quarterback Hunter Povlsen to Aldo Ambriz and went on from there.

By the half the score had mounted to 43-0, with Povlsen passing for five touchdowns.

St. Vincent, despite line domination by Williams, did have two good opportunities to enter the Yellowjacket end zone.

In the second quarter with Williams leading just 14-0, the Mustangs, using a 20-yard pass connection between quarterback Trent Free and Rory Morgan and some tough running from Daniel Burleson, battled inside the Williams 10-yard line to the 6. But the Mustangs came up short on a fourth-down run from inside the 3-yard line.

In the fourth period, with reserves populating both lineups, a pass interception halted a St. Vincent effort at the Williams 17-yard line.

St. Vincent never did get anything going on offense, rushing for just 47 yards against the aggressive Williams defense. Free completed 9 of 19 passes for 70 yards, and he had five passes batted down at the line of scrimmage.

He did, however, have a good day punting, averaging 43.0 yards per kick on six boots, including one that flew and rolled for 71 yards.

The Yellowjackets used seven different ball carriers to rush for 132 yards, but the real damage was done by Povlsen, who riddled the Mustang secondary for 387 passing yards, while throwing just 12 times and completing 10.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.