The St. Helena High football team’s road to a North Central League I title will involve some defining games in the coming weeks but the Saints played like a focused team that was not interested in looking ahead on Friday in a 41-8 win against an overmatched Kelseyville Knights club.
All three phases of football were on display in the process. The Saints offense tallied 354 yards of total offense (226 rushing, 128 passing) led by the offensive line of Juan Hernandez, Erik Bautista, Tony Macias, Kyle Lemieux and Sage Randall-Darter along with tight end Nathaniel Roth. Jahaiver Otero led the rushing brigade with 118 yards on 19 carries and a 1-yard touchdown run.
Quarterback Dylan Martin completed 6 of 7 passes for 128 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Martin completed two touchdown passes to Alfio Basile from 25 and 55 yards away. He also hit Roth for an 18-yard scoring toss. Basile Also returned a punt 51 yards to paydirt.
The Saints squandered a scoring chance on their first drive when the reached the Kelseyville 5 only to have a holding penalty push them back. Niko Lopez’s 37 yard field goal sailed wide left but from that point on, St. Helena played near flawless. Lopez later added a 12-yard rushing score while Basile scored on a 51-yard punt return.
“We got a little bit derailed by a penalty on the first drive but otherwise we were pretty clean the whole first half,” Saints head coach Brandon Farrell said. “We moved the ball through the air as well the ground. I was really happy with how the kids performed especially on run defense against a scheme like theirs. The guys did well up front. We just have to continue to improve.”
The Saints defense was also equal to the event in allowing just 126 yards on 35 snaps but even that number is inflated because two plays consisted of 79 yards -- a 41-yard connection from Noah Lyndall to Logan Barrick, who later added a 38 yard run.
The Saints defense recorded six quarterback sacks. Randall-Darter had three while Roth added two and Lemieux tallied one. Roth added 2.5 tackles for loss followed by Randall-Darter with 1.5 and Javier Garcia with one.
St. Helena also recorded several impact tackles (gains resulting in 0-3 yards). Mark Martin led the way with 4.5 while linebacker-mate Austin Cia added 2.5. Jake Flood and Randall-Darter each had 1.5. Peyton Rockwood and Macias each added one while Edgar Avalos shared on one.
“I think we saw signs of what we were trying to challenge kids with this week,” Farrell said. “We made some plays on the ball in the air. I thought we got a better pass rush. Those are two areas we wanted to make sure we focused on. I thought we ran the ball well against a lot of guys in the box. Dylan is getting a lot more comfortable in the pocket.”
The Saints will have road games the next two weeks beginning at Lower Lake on Oct. 9 and Middletown on Oct. 16.
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