Cloverdale visits St. Helena this Friday
There’s nothing quite like home cooking to turn a high school football season around.
The varsity football Eagles got just what the doctor ordered in their 2016 home opener against visiting St. Vincent on Friday, jumping all over an unsuspecting Mustangs squad with a second quarter explosion en route to a 48-13 rout.
The victory, the first for Cloverdale head coach Chad Talley, improved the Eagle’s record to 1-2 on the year, with a challenging Sept. 16 visit to St. Helena on the docket this week.
“It was nice to get that first win as head coach and I thanked the kids after the game,” Talley said later. “We also talked about how we can’t be satisfied with one win. No disrespect to St. Vincent, but they’re not on a par with a St. Helena or Fort Bragg.”
Second quarter spark
The Eagles were slow out of the gate in Friday’s meeting with St. Vincent, spotting the Mustangs a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. With the Allen Memorial Stadium crowd getting restless, Cloverdale was about to awaken from its early slumber.
Senior Tristen Rege provided the spark on the punt coverage team early in the second quarter, nailing a St. Vincent return man with a huge hit that fired up both the crowd and his team. It proved to be the catalyst that would change the game.
“Our mantra has been, ‘Who’s going to provide the spark?’” Talley said. “That play by Rege was the spark that turned the game around.”
The fired up Eagles would score on their next four offensive possessions, beginning with a drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown scamper from quarterback James Wirt to knot the contest at 7-7. Moments later, Rege broke loose on a 61-yard scoring run to take a lead the Eagles would not relinquish.
Meanwhile the Cloverdale defense, led by Drew Edens, Brandon Grady, Alex Segobiano and Rege, turned up the heat to give the Eagles field position throughout the second quarter.
Grady finished off another drive midway through the second period with a 6-yard burst up the middle, for a 20-7 advantage. Eagles defender Eli Arreola picked off a Mustang pass near midfield, and Wirt obliged with a 50-yard scoring strike to a streaking Grady for a 27-7 halftime lead.
There was no let-up for Cloverdale after intermission, as Rege took a hand-off and raced 67 yards to the house. The Eagles answered a St. Vincent score with another touchdown jaunt from Rege to make it 41-13 at the end of three. With the outcome decided, Rege put the icing on the cake in the final period with his fourth touchdown of the night – a 65-yard run – en route to a 48-13 win.
Rege finished a game for the ages with 350 yards rushing and four touchdowns. Other offensive leaders included Wirt (8-10, 100 yards passing, TD, rushing, TD) and Grady (65 yards receiving, TD, rushing TD).
Leading defenders were Rege (8 tackles), Edens (8 tackles), Arreola (INT), Christian Chavez (INT), Segobiano (sack) and Raymond Sayago (sack).
