KELSEYVILLE — To ensure that no one forgets them in the race for the North Coast Section Class A football championship, Kelseyville”s Knights went out and played an unforgettable game.
In arguably the best high school game of season, Kelseyville roared back from a 14-0 deficit against Willits on Friday night to capture a 20-14 victory. The win suggested that the Knights, who stepped up late in the season to champion the North Central League I North last year may be on the verge of a repeat.
Are you listening, Middletown?
The Knights won on a 31-yard pass by Tony Sekona that wideout Jared Templeton leaped high in the air to snare, came down and took one step into the end zone with 6:09 remaining in the game. The play capped a seven-play, 51-yard scoring drive. Sekona to Templeton, in fact, was the combination that rallied the Knights, setting up another TD and generating 77 yards of passing offense. Templeton”s circus catch of a 14-yard Sekona pass to set up K”ville”s first touchdown probably was what people will remember about this game. Templeton was turned completely upside down by safety William BJ Goforth, but somehow came down uninjured and holding onto the ball.
“It was a good high school game,” said Kelseyville coach Stan Weiper. “We made some mistakes, but we”re starting to get the character we need to come back again and compete for the championship. In fact, the play that we scored on was a missed play. But the kid (Templeton) went up and caught it. So, you have to have some luck, too.”
For his part, Sekona, as well as passing for a touchdown, ran for two others and a two-point conversion. He completed 8 of 15 passes for 173 yards with one interception.
“I feel like we stepped it up a notch. We started out bad, but halftime came around and we stepped it up,” Sekona said. “I feel like we”re ready for Middletown.”
Regarding the symmetry with Templeton, he added, “I told him anytime I get pressure you can figure I”m going to be looking for you, and he says, You put it in the air, I”ll get it.”
“The flip? The only time I”ve seen that kind of thing is on Madden ”07.” (a computer game),” Sekona added.
The loss all but knocked Willits out of the NCL I North title picture. It was a hard way to go. Two weeks ago, the Wolverines were 6-0. But two trips in successive weeks to Lake County — last week to Middletown, this week to Kelseyville — produced tough losses at both stops, and Willits is history as far as the league race goes.
“You don”t really want to talk to me, because all I”m going to do is bad-mouth the officials,” Willits” head coach Jeff Donaldson told a reporter who was about to ask him a postgame question.
If a reporter could have asked Donaldson a question it would have been about how this game took such a macabre turn after Willits clearly established an early edge by marching 63 yards in six plays for their first touchdown.
Wolverine quarterback Charles Wright went 4-for-4 and ran up 63 yards on the drive, the last four yards on a scoring pass to tight end Keith Hagan with 4:46 left in the period.
They made it 14-0 on their very next series, scoring in six plays and moving 67 yards — the key one being a fake punt on the first play of the second quarter on which the ball went to Goforth instead of the punter. Goforth rambled 45 yards to set up a first and goal at the Kelseyville 5-yard-line. Fullback Mike Moynahan plunged over two plays later and the second quarter only a minute old
Just as dominant as the lead were the big-yardage plays Willits pulled off in the first half. In all, the Wolverines had six plays that went for 15 yards or more while rolling to 183 yards of total offense.
The turning point came in the last 88 seconds of the first half and it was keyed by Sekona, who shows up on the roster as the Knights” quarterback, but essentially plays everywhere, including a turn or two in the defensive line. In the period of time it took to run six plays, Sekona completed a 14-yard pass to Jared Templeton at the Wolverine 4, scoring from there as a running back, scoring on the two-point conversion the same way, and sacking the Willits quarterback.
Another question for Donaldson might be, “Did the Willits offense go conservative or just go flat in the second half?”
As Kelseyville worked itself back into the game, tying it on the second play of the fourth quarter and then scoring the winning touchdown on its next series, Willits basically went three-and-out five times in succession.
Are you listening, Middletown?
