Win would move Kelseyville into sectional semifinals for third year in a row
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LAKE COUNTY >> The Kelseyville High School Football Tours 2024 charter bus heads north toward the Oregon border Friday as the Knights open the North Coast Section Division 7 playoffs with a first-round game against the Del Norte Warriors of Crescent City. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
Kelseyville, the undefeated North Central League I champion, puts its season on the line against undefeated Humboldt-Del Norte winner Del Norte. Neither team – the 9-1 Knights and the 8-2 Warriors – have lost a game since September, so both squads are brimming with optimism and hopeful of reaching the semifinal round the weekend of Nov. 22-23 against the winner of another Friday game between No. 1 seed Moreau Catholic of Hayward and No. 8 St. Bernard’s of Eureka. That semifinal will take place at the home field of the highest surviving seed, so the Knights will be rooting for a St. Bernard’s upset.
St. Bernard’s at Kelseyville, if both teams win, would take place at Don Owens Stadium in Lakeport, Kelseyville’s adoptive home this season since its own field is undergoing renovations and has been unavailable all season.
Kelseyville certainly has a long day ahead Friday as the Knights will meet at the school at 6:30 a.m. and depart for Crescent City – roughly 450 miles and five hours away – by charter bus at 7 a.m., exactly 12 hours before kickoff.
Not playing in Kelseyville is something the team without a home has simply grown accustomed to this season. They’ve adopted a motto that wherever they play is their home, and the Knights will try to make themselves feel right at home Friday night in Crescent City, which is easier said than done, according to Knights head coach Leo Flores.
“That program really has big community support,” Flores said. “The last time we were up there the place was packed. There’s a big football atmosphere up there.”
Kelseyville, the No. 5 seed in Division 7 and No. 4 Del Norte have faced only one common opponent this season, and both teams routed McKinleyville.
In recent times, Kelseyville and Del Norte did play a home-and-away series during the 2021-22 seasons that the Knights would just as soon forget. They lost 55-12 to the Warriors in 2021 at Kelseyville, and 71-13 at Del Norte in 2022 when Flores was an assistant under then-head coach Erick Larsen. The majority of players on this year’s Kelseyville squad were not part of the 2021 game and only a few were sophomores on the 2022 team. In any event, two years is an eternity in high school football, and the current-edition Knights certainly bring far more to the table than the 2021 and ’22 teams combined.
For starters, the Knights are solid up front on both offense and defense, so much so that the team’s offensive line was recently accorded an unprecedented honor. Behind the offensive line are two 1,000-yard running backs in junior Michael DeJohn (1,243 yards) and senior Kyle Watkins (1,002 yards), both with 15 rushing touchdowns.
Kelseyville also has a very active quarterback in senior Brock Barrick, who has already set career highs for passing yardage (1,317) and rushing yardage (476). He’s thrown 12 touchdowns with only four interceptions while also running for four scores.
There’s another issue at play as well. With the North Coast Section moving to a “competitive championships equity” system this season as far as the playoffs are concerned, which means teams can move up or down as many as two divisions, Kelseyville is the only Lake County and NCL I team to make the playoffs. Willits (8-2), St. Helena (6-4), Fort Bragg (6-4) and Middletown (5-5) all were left out.
“Willits has a good team and Fort Bragg turned its program around,” Flores said. “Our league has good athletes. I feel bad for the seniors, especially the Willits seniors, because they won’t have a chance to play (in the postseason).”
The Wolverines, the section runner-up a year ago, went 7-1 to finish in sole possession of second place in the NCL I this season, but still couldn’t qualify as an at-large team while schools such as Fortuna (4-6) and Vallejo, a Division 5 team dropping down to Division 7, made the cut.
“I saw it coming when they changed it to power rankings,” Flores said. “If we would have lost to St. Helena (last Friday), no Lake County team would be going to the playoffs this year. We come from a league that has some tough competition. We want to show we do have good athletes here in Lake County. We want to go up there and represent our league because our league doesn’t get any respect.
“Our league is no joke,” Flores added.
Del Norte makes its living on the ground running powers out of a Wing-T formation. The Warriors attempt to spread out a defense by putting players in motion but will then pound the ball inside. Their quarterback, senior Aidan Rice, has completed only 36 of 63 passes for 417 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions, but he’s an effective runner with seven TDs so far this season.
“I know Del Norte is a run-heavy team, a well-coached team,” Flores said. “I think we match up pretty well with them.”
The Warriors’ top two running backs are senior Benjamin Borges (885 yards, 5 TDs) and junior William Mccovey (601 yards, 7 TDs).
Del Norte started 1-2 this season, losing its season opener 22-0 at Fortuna followed two weeks later by a 35-6 home loss to Arcata, but the Warriors came back to beat Fortuna in a league game, 21-12, on Oct. 26, and they closed the season with a 33-32 victory over St. Bernard’s in Eureka. Fortuna is the No. 6 seed in the Division 7 field.
Kelseyville’s only loss to date is a 44-21 setback to non-league opponent Orland (8-2) on Sept. 6 in Orland. Orland won the Butte View League with a 5-0 record and is home Friday night to play Pierce in the opening round of the North Section Division 3 playoffs. Orland is the No. 2 seed.
The Knights have done a good job staying focused in practice this week, according to Flores.
“They’ve done a really good job of staying motivated,” he added. “Our guys are tough competitors. They’ve faced tough challenges all season and met them.”
And their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Kelseyville’s line was selected as co-MVP on offense on this year’s All-League team as voted on by the league’s coaches. Something like that has never happened before. The Kelseyville line is sharing the honor with standout Willits splitback Kolbe Bufardeci, who caught 73 passes for 1,412 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also rushed for 574 yards and five TDs.
“It’s never happened before … I don’t know what to say,” Flores said. “The league coaches thought so much of our linemen they voted to make them co-MVP.”
Added Flores of the unique honor, “When the game was on the line for us so many times this season, they were always there to lead us.”
