FORT BRAGG — Kelseyville High School quarterback Luke Watkins passed for two touchdowns and ran for another while the Knights defense picked off five Fort Bragg passes in a 43-12 North Central League I varsity football victory over the Timberwolves on Friday night in Fort Bragg.
“It was an all-around solid win,” Kelseyville head coach Erick Larsen said of not only the Knights’ first league win, but their first victory of the season. “Our players have gone through the wringer with the preseason schedule we’ve had and then Clear Lake in our first league game. It was nice to get a win.”
Kelseyville (1-1 league, 1-4 overall) reeled off 29 unanswered points after Fort Bragg scored early in the third quarter to chop the Knights’ lead to 14-6.
Watkins connected with Jake Keithly on a 3-yard touchdown pass while Jesse Gonzales returned an interception 21 yards for another score to increase Kelseyville’s lead to 27-6 by the end of the third quarter.
The Knights continued to pull away in the fourth quarter on a Keithly 3-yard run, a Joey Gentle 19-yard field goal and a Kyle Leary 3-yard run.
Fort Bragg (0-2, 1-4) scored on a 35-yard pass on the final play of the game.
There was no scoring in the first half until Watkins and Kyle Leary connected on a 1-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter. The same combination hooked up on the conversion to give the Knights a 8-0 lead. Watkins’ 3-yard keeper with 32 seconds left in the first half made it 14-0.
Watkins passed for 52 yards and ran for another 72. Kyle Leary was the team’s workhorse in the backfield, carrying the ball 22 times for 104 yards. The Knights amassed 251 yards on the ground.
Kelseyville’s defense stopped the Timberwolves on downs deep in Knights territory to open the game.
“That felt good after some of the things we’ve had happen to us this season,” Larsen said.
The Knights benefited from the strong line play of such players as Steve Frace and Omar Cacho to keep their offense firing on all cylinders against the Timberwolves.
“We ran the ball pretty well all night and they (Frace and Cacho) really played well,” Larsen said.
Another standout was JoseCarmen Calvillo, according to Larsen.
On the defensive side, Frace led the Knights with six unassisted tackles, including a sack, Sam Vanoven added five tackles and an assist, Zayne Barker had two sacks, and Keithly picked off two passes.
Pretty much the only negative was the triple-digit number of penalty yards racked up by the Knights, according to Larsen.
“That was unacceptable,” Larsen said. “We still have a long way to go.”
Kelseyville’s junior varsity squad improved to 2-0 in league play with a 43-19 win.
