Five different Dragons scored touchdowns Friday as the Sonoma Valley High gridders walloped Elsie Allen 48-20 in the season finale, winning their third game in a row.
Sophomore Henry Darnell and senior Jake McDonald both scored twice while junior Aidan Van Heerdon, senior Sam Cordano and senior Max Yankovich each had a touchdown.
By the middle of the third quarter, with the rout in progress, coach Bob Midgley was substituting freely. “Everybody got into the game,” he said.
After an onside kick to open the game, Elsie Allen fumbled the ball away on the first play, and three plays later, Darnell scampered across from two yards out for the first of his two TDs. The extra point was no good.
Sonoma’s newfound lead didn’t last long as a Lobo ran back the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, and the score was tied at 6-6 with a little more than two minutes gone in the game.
But on the next series, Yankovich hit Darnell with a 27-yard touchdown pass to give the Dragons a 13-6 lead – a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
A wet field affected both sides as Elsie Allen lost four fumbles while the Dragons lost three.
Early in the second quarter, Yankovich hit Van Heerdon for a 25-yard touchdown pass and the Dragon lead opened up to 20-6.
With about five minutes remaining in the quarter, McDonald scored the first of his two touchdowns. With the extra point, the Dragons led 27-6.
The Lobos fumbled away the ensuing kick off giving the Dragons another short field – which they took advantage of. At the 3:26 mark, McDonald scored his second TD and the Dragons took a 34-6 lead into halftime.
After Will Lennon recovered a Lobo fumble in the first minute of the third quarter, the Dragons marched downfield culminating with a two-yard plunge by Cordano giving the Dragons a 40-6 lead.
With a little more than two minutes to go in the quarter, the Lobos narrowed the gap with a 35-yard touchdown pass.
But the Dragons weren’t finished. With 1.9 seconds left in the third quarter, Yankovich ran 29 yards for a touchdown. And with a trick play on the extra-point attempt, holder Ethan Koler picked up the ball and passed to a wide-open Freddy Padilla for the two-point conversion. And the Dragons were up 48-12.
With a running clock in the fourth quarter, the Lobos tacked on a safety and then added a touchdown on a hook-and-ladder play that covered 45 yards.
The final was 48-20. The 48 points were the most the Dragons had scored in a game all year.
“We played like we were having fun” coach Midgley said after the game.
Midgley had kind words for the winless Lobos who only dressed 14 players for the game. “They didn’t give up,” he said. “They scored at the end of the game.”
And he said that the Lobos, “played with a lot of class. It could have gotten chippy, but they played with class.”
The win gives the Dragons a 3-3 Sonoma County League record and a 3-7 overall record. After losing the first seven games, the Dragons ended their season on a three-game winning streak.
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