First-round playoff loss ends Kelseyville’s season at 9-2
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CRESCENT CITY >> In a game of who would make the fewest mistakes, the Del Norte Warriors proved to be one extra-point kick better than the Kelseyville Knights, 13-12, in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 7 playoffs Friday night at Del Norte High School in Crescent City.
The North Central League I champions certainly didn’t go quietly, moving the ball up to midfield on their final possession before running out of time. Another 20 yards or so and placekicker Jose Juarez would have been called on to attempt a game-winning field goal, according to Kelseyville head coach Leo Flores.
“I would have tried it,” Flores said.
Juarez never had a chance to make either of his extra-point attempts following Kelseyville’s game-opening touchdown drive that staked the Knights (9-2) to a 6-0 lead, or after a 76-yard touchdown pass from Brock Barrick to running back Kyle Watkins with 9:03 left in the game that snapped a 6-all tie.
Bad snaps on both tries were the culprit although the second attempt was from 10 yards deeper than usual as Watkins was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct for spiking the ball following his touchdown. Del Norte (9-2) then jumped offsides, moving the ball five yards closer.
“It was a mistake, but sometimes emotions get the best of you,” Flores said. “I wasn’t upset with him.”
Del Norte, the Humbodlt-Del Norte champion, quickly turned the tide of momentum by returning the kickoff to the Kelseyville 43-yard line. The Warriors gradually worked the ball down the field, using up a decent amount of time in the process while converting some key plays to keep the drive alive against the Knights’ stingy defense, one that had come up big all night long, including a goal-line stand late in the second quarter that stopped the Warriors on downs at the Kelseyville 1.
Benjamin Borges’ 2-yard run with four minutes remaining tied the score and Greyson Franklin’s extra point broke the 12-12 tie. Franklin’s first extra-point try of the night following an Aidan Rice 20-yard pass to Borges with 13 seconds left in the first half was blocked by Kelseyville’s Daniel Anderson Reyes.
Kelseyville had plenty of time left to pull out the win, but Michael DeJohn fumbled – the third lost fumble of the game for the Knights – and the Warriors had the ball back with three minutes to go. Kelseyville was able to force a punt after expending its final timeouts, but the Knights were 80 yards away from the end zone with less than a minute to play and could only reach midfield before time ran out.
In a game that couldn’t have been any closer, Flores said it all boiled down to mistakes.
“It was a well-coached game, and in those cases the team that makes the less mistakes wins,” Flores said.
Del Norte barely won that battle despite a solid outing by the Kelseyville defense. While the Warriors were able to reach the end zone twice, both touchdowns were the result of short fields.
“Our defense kept us in the game,” Flores said. “Logan Barrick (assistant coach) did a great job with the defense.”
Kelseyville held a 6-0 lead for nearly the entire first half, taking the opening kickoff and marching right down the field, a drive of 70 yards, the final 13 coming on a DeJohn touchdown run, his team-leading 16th of the season.
“We were pretty pumped up with that first drive,” Flores said. “We saw the game predictions (from other prep football media outlets) showing us losing to them and not giving them much of a game, so we had a chip on our shoulders. We wanted to show them that we do have good athletes in Lake County and that we do play good football in our league.”
Added Flores, “We were pretty pumped up after that first drive.”
And the Warriors also knew they were in for a game.
The Knights deflected each Warriors drive until late in the second quarter when a push deep into Kelseyville territory was stopped at the 1-yard line when a fourth-and-goal play fell just short of the goal line.
The Knights couldn’t move the ball in the final minutes of the half and ended up punting the ball back to the Warriors. The short kick was returning to the Kelseyville 20-yard line and the Warriors quickly covered that distance on a 20-yard pass with 13 seconds left.
Del Norte drove deep into Kelseyville territory again in the third quarter before the Knights again stopped the Warriors on downs at the 12-yard line.
Kelseyville finally broke through early in the fourth quarter when Barrick found a seam in the Del Norte secondary and hit Watkins in stride about 20 yards down the field. He outraced pursuing Warriors defenders the final 56 yards to the end zone.
“Brock read the defense, they were in man-to-man, and changed the pattern Watkins was going to run. The play was supposed to go inside but Brock moved it back to the outside, and he hit Kyle between the cornerback and safety,” Flores said. “Kyle did the rest. They were never going to catch him.”
On a night when Kelseyville’s usually productive ground game sputtered– Barrick and Watkins were the leading rushers with only 31 yards apiece – the Knights’ passing game, and more specifically the Barrick-to-Watkins connection, was on fire.
Barrick finished the game 7-for-13 for 201 yards, and almost all of that went to Watkins, who had five catches for 168 yards.
“Kyle and Brock just stepped it up,” Flores said. “They’re seniors and they both played lights out.”
Flores, an assistant under former head coach Erick Larsen before taking over the program in 2023 following Larsen’s departure to St. Helena High School, said the hardest part of Friday night wasn’t losing to the Warriors, but saying goodbye to his seniors.
“I know every one of those kids inside and out, and saying goodbye to them, kids I’ve been working with for years, was the hardest thing. You get attached to them … I got choked up talking to them after the game. Some of them have played together for 10 years.”
While the Knights achieved most of what they set out to do this season, such as going undefeated to win the league championship, they had hoped to make a strong run in the playoffs, which they might have in any other season. Unfortunately for the Knights and other NCL I teams, the North Coast Section’s new “competitive championships equity” system, which went into effect this year, sent them on a 450-mile road trip to play a school with twice their enrollment.
While addressing his team following their final game of the season, Flores did his best to turn plenty of frowns into smiles.
“I told them they should be happy. They played hard against a school with more than 1,000 kids, a team that dropped down into a small-school division and beat us by one point, so they (Warriors) really don’t have much to celebrate. We played hard, we just came up a little bit short.”
Added Flores, “I’m just proud of all of them. They played with heart.”