It didn’t take the Sonoma Valley High Dragon gridders long to score the first of five touchdowns Friday night as they throttled Elsie Allen 38-8.
On the Dragons first play, junior running back Henry Darnell broke to the outside and had an open field in front of him on his way to a 75-yard touchdown jaunt. The extra point by Juan Zaragoza was good and the Dragons led 7-0 – a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
On the next possession, Elsie Allen fumbled the ball away on its first play and sophomore Tyler Winslow recovered on the Lobo 20-yard-line. Two plays later, Winslow rumbled in from four yards out and after only three plays, Sonoma had a 14-0 lead.
“We needed this after (Montgomery) last week,” said Dragon Coach Bob Midgley. “Good for the team. We did well.”
The Dragon defense kept the Lobo offense bottled up all night forcing punt after punt.
Early in the second quarter, the Dragons put together a 62-yard drive that featured senior quarterback Ethan Koler hitting his brother, junior wide receiver Gavin Koler for a first down on the Lobo 22. A few moments later, Ethan Koler found junior receiver Noah Thomas all by himself near the goal line for a 35-yard TD reception and the Dragons upped the lead to 21-0. It was Ethan Koler’s first touchdown pass of the season.
The teams traded punts the rest of the quarter and the Dragons held a 21-0 lead at the half.
Sonoma again scored quickly to start the second half. After a 64-yard run by Winslow, the Dragons had a first-and-goal on the 1-yard-line and on the next play, junior David Neumann scored to make it a 28-0 lead at the 10:25 mark.
Elsie Allen couldn’t handle the ensuing kickoff and senior Noah Bartolome recovered the fumble for the Dragons giving them excellent field possession on the Lobo 31.
A couple plays later, Ethan Koler ran up the middle on a keeper from the 14-yard-line and scored to put the Dragons up 35-0.
The Dragons threatened to add another TD early in the fourth quarter, but a holding penalty pushed them back. But Zaragoza hit a 40-yard field goal to stretch the lead to 38-0.
After that, the teams played with a running clock for the rest of the game.
Sonoma lost its shutout bid with three minutes to go in the game when the Lobos, aided by three Dragon major penalties, finally got on the board, and the two-point conversion made it 38-8 as a final.
“We played our style of football at last. We came physically ready to play,” Midgley said after the game. “It was a good win.”
But Midgley said the Dragons still have room to improve.
“We got some good experience in the Montgomery game,” he said. We’ve got some better teams coming up on the schedule.”
He said Bartolome, Darnell and Winslow all had very good games.
The Dragons even their record at 2-2 overall, and are 1-0 in conference play. Sonoma hosts longtime foe Petaluma Friday at Arnold Field. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
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