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SUNNYVALE — With rain pouring down at the start of the second half Friday night in the California Interscholastic Federation Division 5-AA Northern regional, The King’s Academy offense did something unexpected.
The Knights went to the air.
TKA, which trailed Del Norte 14-7 at halftime, passed 17 times in the second half, including a 19-yard touchdown throw from Antonio Gonzalez to Zach Paszkeicz in the third quarter. But Del Norte ran for its game-winning score with 7 minutes, 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and the Knigths could not counter in a 21-14 loss.
“We couldn’t run the ball. They were committing nine guys to the run,” said TKA coach Pete Lavorato about his team’s commitment to the pass in the second half. “We have a good quarterback, we have good receivers, and I said, ‘Look, we’ve got to throw the ball. It’s a little bit rainy, but we can still throw the ball.’ ”
He added: “I thought we played really hard, Look, it was 14-14 in the fourth quarter, and it could have gone either way. I’m very, very proud of them.”
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The King’s Academy (10-4) was limited to 32 yards on the ground.
Del Norte (13-1), which won the North Coast Section Division V championship last week 14-13 over Encinal, rushed for 246 yards in the game, led by Levi Cox Cooley’s and his 162 yards. The Crescent City team looked very much in home in the rain in the fourth quarter.
“We love the rain. We’re from the most Northern you can get in California,” Del Norte coach Nick White said. “We run the ball, we play great defense, we don’t care if it rains or not.”
In the 5-AA state championship game next week, Del Norte will face El Monte, which beat Serra-San Diego 30-18 in the SoCal regional. The site, day and time of the game was unavailable at press time.
TKA, which held on to claim the Central Coast Section Division III title 14-13 last week, took a huge gamble on its first possession of the game. The host Knights went for it on fourth down and four yards to go on their 12-yard line. Noah Short was tackled by Kai Baugh for a 5-yard loss. Three plays later, Del Norte quarterback OJ Calleja ran the ball in from the 1 for the first score of the game.
“We should have punted,” Lavorato said. “That was my mistake.”
But the Knights’ Daniel Turner recovered a Del Norte fumble on its 9-yard-line on the Warriors’ next possession. Three plays later, Gonzalez rolled right and sent a high pass to Kevin Sielski, who caught it in the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown, as the first quarter ended in a 7-7 tie.
TKA answers on 10 yd pass from Gonzalez to Sielski, 7-7 first quarter @DarrenSabedra @VytasMazeika @BayAreaPrepsHQ pic.twitter.com/NegLRG3yjt
— Phil Jensen (@JensenPhil) December 7, 2019
Del Norte quickly grabbed the lead back. It marched 75 yards on eight plays, ending with a tough 9-yard touchdown run by Cox Cooley.
The Knights’ second touchdown was also set up by a fumble recovery, this time by Kevin Huang on the Del Norte 18. Two plays later, Gonzalez found Paszkeicz for the touchdown, and Nico Sage’s point-after-touchdown kick tied the game at 14.
Another Calleja 1-yard touchdown run produced the eventual winning score after a fourth-down play by the Knights was stuffed by Del Norte on the Knights’ 43-yard-line.
With 2:36 to go in the game, TKA went for another fourth-down in its territory and a pass fell incomplete. Del Norte took the ball from the Knights’ 32 and kept it until failing to convert a fourth-down play with 22 seconds left. A desperation pass was intercepted by Del Norte on the last play of the game.
