The Eagles put the wraps on a tough NCL-1 football campaign on Friday in the regular-season finale at league champion Fort Bragg, falling to the unbeaten Timberwolves, 41-0.
With the victory, Fort Bragg (7-0, 10-0) completed its first ever undefeated league season, while the Eagles finished league at 4-3 and 7-3 overall.
On Sunday Cloverdale was awarded the eighth seed in the North Coast Section Division-5 playoffs, and will host number nine Stellar Prep in the opener this Friday, Nov. 13. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Should the Eagles win this week, they will visit number one seeded Berean Christian on Nov. 20 or 21 (date TBD).
Check the NCS website at www.cifncs.org for updated playoff information as it becomes available.
The complete list of NCS Division-5 football teams in seeding order is: Berean Christian (9-1), St. Bernard Academy (9-1), John Swett (9-1), Valley Christian (8-2), Salesian (4-6), Ferndale (6-4), Middletown (5-4), Cloverdale (7-3), Stellar Prep (6-3), Willits (5-5) and Livermore Valley Charter (5-4).
Eagles fall to T-Wolves
Cloverdale entered the Nov. 6 contest at Fort Bragg missing key players due to injury, most notably star 1,500-yard running back Luke Bernardi, who was sidelined after suffering a neck injury a week earlier.
Bernardi’s playoff availability has not been determined.
The Eagles called up eight players from the JV squad to bolster the varsity team, and by all accounts they performed extremely well.
“The underclassmen fit seamlessly with the varsity roster and were very impressive to watch,” CHS head coach Chad Prieskorn said. “Freshman Drew Edens started at center and played the entire game on offense. Switching between shotgun and under center, he didn’t have one bad snap and provided great pass protection all game.”
Fort Bragg did nothing to diminish its reputation as the top small school in the Redwood Empire, combining a potent offense with a stifling defensive unit to throttle the Eagles all game.
The Timberwolves jumped out to a 20-0 halftime lead and added three more scores after intermission in cruising to a 41-0 win.
Despite the lopsided score, Cloverdale senior quarterback Chris Harms was impressive under center in completing 22 of 33 pass attempts for 172 yards. Leading receivers were Marcus Poe (6-73 yards), Jayden Mrvicka (6-49 yards), Adrian Bernardi (4-15 yards), Mason Meier (3-18 yards) and Tristan Rege (3-17 yards).
Leading tacklers included: Meier (10), Jared Hibbeln (7, forced fumble), Poe (3 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, sack), Mel Alonso (2 tackles, sack, fumble recovery) and Jacob Peterson (sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery).
Also turning in good defensive efforts were sophomore call-ups James Wirt and Christian Chavez.
