Kelseyville shuts out Fort Bragg to improve to 2-0 in league standings; 2-0 Willits up next
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KELSEYVILLE >> While the 2026 season has had some crazy ups and downs for the Kelseyville varsity football team and first-year head coach Logan Barrick, the Knights had a relatively relaxing Friday night against Fort Bragg, winning 31-0 in North Central League I North action at Kelseyville.
Kelseyville (2-0 North, 5-4 overall) will play at Willits (2-0, 4-5) next Friday with the undisputed league championship up for grabs.
“It was a lot less stressful than a lot of our games have been this season,” Barrick said.
Three of the Knights’ four losses this season have been one-score affairs – all winnable games that got away from them for a variety of reasons.
“It was a good job all the way around tonight,” Barrick of his team’s first shutout win of the season.
The night couldn’t have started any better for Kelseyville as Brayton Thomas returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, part of a 17-point Knights first quarter.
Jorge Gonzalez, who made all four of his extra-point kicks on the night, added a 25-yard field goal a short time later to make it 10-0, and Case Pivniska’s 22-yard touchdown run capped the quarter scoring.
To its credit, Fort Bragg (0-3, 1-8) didn’t let the Knights completely run away with the game, controlling the ball and taking huge chunks of time off the clock, but the Timberwolves were ultimately unable to score after getting close to the end zone, the Kelseyville defense holding firm each time.
After one such Fort Bragg drive, the Knights got the ball back and scored their final points of the first half, cashing in on a 38-yard pass from Kimo Brown to Jayden Fabisch for a 24-0 lead.
“Fort Bragg had the ball for most of the second quarter … we didn’t get our hands on the ball very much, so that touchdown by Fabish was big,” Barrick said.
The Timberwolves were driving again right before halftime until a Pivniska sack ended that scoring opportunity. Pivniska, in addition to rushing for 85 yards on nine carries, was among the Knights’ tackle leaders with eight, including two sacks and two tackles for loss.
Fort Bragg opened the second half with another long and time-consuming march only to be denied again. After taking over on downs at their own 20-yard-line, Pivniska rushed for 12 yards on first down before wide receiver JD Smart broke loose on a 68-yard touchdown run, the first carry of his high school football career.
The Timberwolves threatened one final time in the fourth quarter before Kelseyville took over on downs and ran out the clock.
It was senior night for the Knights and Barrick said all of the team’s seniors played at least one down, including Bryce Keener, who is still on the mend from an injury. He suited up and took the field late as Kelseyville kneeled on the ball to end the game.
“All my seniors saw the field,” Barrick said. “It was a good night.”
Brown, another of the team’s senior, finished is night 5-for-10 passing for 107 yards, including the touchdown to Fabisch as well as a 26-yard completion to Gordon Astrup and a 22-yard pass to Hugh O’Boyle. Fabisch had three catches on the night for 59 yards along with 29 yards rushing.
Kelseyville had 188 yards rushing overall.
Hayden Brown’s 10 tackles led Kelseyville followed by Pivniska with eight, Smart and Weech Pasalo with seven apiece, Fabish with six, including a tackle for loss, Ethan Wheeler with five, including a sack, and Astrup, Deake Lyndall and Angel Ruiz with four each, all with a tackle for loss.
“A lot of guys got an opportunity on defense and were flying around having fun,” Barrick said.
Kelseyville also won the junior varsity game 12-6, improving to 2-0 in the North and 4-5 overall.
