Willits hands St. Vincent its first football loss

Visiting Willits won the battle up front and got a terrific individual performance by senior Jacob Arms as the Wolverines knocked St. Vincent from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 27-0 win at Yarborough Field on Saturday afternoon.

Arms broke away early with touchdown runs of 62 and 51 yards in the first quarter and the Wolverines were never threatened.

“I told the kids this week that if we lost to Willits, it would be because of the play of Arms,” said a disappointed Mustang head coach Trent Herzog. It turned out that way, and Arms was even better than advertised.

The Wolverine running back wound up rushing for three touchdowns from scrimmage, and he completely took the air out of St. Vincent comeback hopes by stepping in front of a third- quarter Jacob Porteous flat pass and scooting 90 yards along the left sideline for another score.

The interception was a killer for St. Vincent as the Mustangs came out after intermission and took possession of the football on a successful onside kick recovery by Liam O’Hare. The stage was set for an emotional trip back into the game, but it never materialized.

Willits turned in a masterful job on the defensive side of the ball by limiting Mustang running sensation Kai Hall to 21 yards on 12 attempts. Hall came into the contest with 366 yards and 6 touchdowns in wins against McKinleyville and Cloverdale.

“We keyed on Hall for the entire game,” said Wolverine coach Brandon Norbury. “We wanted them to go to the pass, and it worked today. I’m not going to say too much more about how because we might see them again in the playoffs. St. Vincent can be much better.”

Porteous was under heavy pressure for most of the contest as the Wolverines punished the Mustangs up front and sacked the sophomore signal caller six times.

Overall, the St. Vincent sophomore finished 8 of 23 for 124 yards, but he hung up the one costly interception to Harms, who outdistanced Hall going the other way for the third Wolverine touchdown.

“We have some real studs up front in our defensive line,” noted Norbury. “Our kids put a lot of pressure on their young quarterback. It made the difference today.”

Porteous was under a heavy rush from the opening series in the game. He connected on only 3 of 14 pass attempts in the first half when the tone was set.

Willits took advantage of a poor punt in the late going and converted a short-field touchdown on a drive of 21 yards in the fourth quarter. Harms punched it in from the 2-yard line to end the scoring.

One solid pass play worked well on two series for the host Mustangs, with Porteous hooking up with Hall on a screen as Wolverine linemen forced their way into the backfield with a big rush. Hall outlegged two secondary defenders, and completed a 43-yard connection before being forced out of bounds in the second quarter. Hall wound up leading all Mustang receivers with 50 yards on three receptions.

Defensively, the Mustangs (2-1) got another strong effort from senior Gio Antonini, who had eight tackles. Anton Ghattas chipped in with six stops. Gio Vaca had three individual tackles and a fumble recovery.

Jeremy Bukolsky made three elusive kickoff returns for the Mustangs and finished the afternoon by blocking Willits’ final PAT attempt.

“Other than those two touchdowns in the first quarter, I thought that our defense played well today,” said Herzog following the game. “We didn’t play well on the offensive side of the ball.”

The loss was the fourth in succession at the hands of the Wolverines for St. Vincent in the current series between the former foes in the North Central League I.

Willits improved to 2-0 for the season with a contest against Arcata slated for Friday night on the road.

Willits captured the junior varsity contest, 43-14.