NOVATO, Calif. - After a slow start on a hot day, Redwood picked the energy up and pulled through with the 28-12 win against Ukiah’s tough defense.
Redwood’s running back Luke McKernan was a huge part of the Giants’ offense with two touchdowns, both of them going for over 60 yards on the ground. He got his team going with a 60-yard rushing touchdown that got the Redwood fans on their feet near the end of the first quarter.
Once the second quarter started, there was no stopping the Giants. In the beginning of the second, senior Joe Calzaretta forced a fumble and returned it for a 65-yard touchdown. Another bright spot during the quarter was Redwood tight end Alex Hagen. He closed off the quarter with an exciting 19-yard touchdown that made their lead an even bigger gap at 21-3.
“I think that we ran the ball well and found open holes," said Redwood coach Allen Talley. "A big part of it was our o-line, but we did get a little sloppy in the second half.”
It wasn’t just the Redwood offense that was the only contributor to Saturday’s win, as the defense also kept the pressure high, led by linebacker Henry Minturn. He helped his team tremendously with multiple sacks and many defensive stops that shook the Wildcat offense. Another impactful defensive player was lineman Kobe Gerstein. Minturn and Gerstein were both terrors against the Ukiah offense. Gerstein created pressure leading to multiple sacks and blew through the Wildcat offensive line for most of the afternoon.
Despite the loss, the Wildcats had some star players who threatened to lead a comeback. One of those stars was running back and middle linebacker Frank Pomilia. On the first play of the game he forced a fumble and recovered it on the Giants’ 39-yard line. He also scored a two-yard touchdown in the third quarter to try and get a comeback going. To go along with that, the Wildcats had an exciting interception from a tipped pass with 3:45 left in the third.
“We have to get better at doing the little things and we have to understand that bad things happen in football and grow from it,” said Wildcats head coach Jonathon Dewey.
In the fourth quarter, neither team could really get anything going. Ukiah nailed a 37-yard field goal to account for the final points of the game.
The Giants will be playing their MCAL game on Friday against Tamalpais, while the Wildcats will have a gap week and play Eureka on Sep. 27.
