After getting blanked by the Sonoma County League All-Stars in the first half of the 37th Annual Kiwanis All-Star football game, the North Bay League came out firing on all cylinders in the second half. The NBL poured on the points in a huge way in the third quarter, scoring 29 points and eventually took the showdown by a 36-7 final.

It was a defensive struggle in the first half with both teams unable to find any rhythm offensively. The SCL, stacked with tons of talent at the running back position, finally broke through in the waning moments of the first half. Petaluma High’s Sean Sullivan, who will play at San Francisco City College next season, took a big run all the way to the NBL 12-yard line. That set up the Yale bound Kahlil Keys, out of Casa Grande, for a 10-yard touchdown run to close out the half putting the SCL on top by a 7-0 count.

The NBL team must have rallied themselves in the locker room because they came out with a purpose right from the second half kickoff. On their first drive, Piner’s Michael Mook, who’s heading to College of the Redwoods to play ball, reversed his field and dove into the end zone from 8-yards out to put the NBL on the scoreboard.

SCL was forced into a three and out on their next possession, setting up a 6-yard touchdown pass from former Montgomery signal caller Max Heller to Piner’s John Rickard to give the NBL its first lead 15-7.

The big blow for the SCL came on the ensuing kickoff where a short kick was mishandled and fell into the arms of Cardinal Newman’s Tyler Laron for the NBL.

With the good field position, Heller found another target, Brandon Blank from Montgomery, who’s staying local and playing at Santa Rosa Junior College, in the back of the end zone for an 18-yard TD strike and the rout was on.

After the SCL was forced to punt again, a heads-up play by Montgomery’s Austin Shull scooped up the shallow punt and raced by the opponents over the goal line to make the score 29-7.

Late in the fourth quarter, Shull intercepted a pass on defense and ran it back to close out the scoring for the 36-7 NBL victory.   

Four players from Rancho Cotate participated for the NBL All-Stars. The big highlight was an interception in the fourth quarter by defensive back Devon Farwell. Catching up with linemen Andrew Richardson and David Calderon, along with safety Daniel Garber, each had ear-to-ear smiles on their sweat soaked faces.

“It was great to go out in the last game and get a tackle, make some last hits, make some plays,” said Richardson. “They (SCL) were talking a lot of smack, we just had to come out and give it to ‘em,” said the new Bear Cub, Daniel Garber. “You get in the locker room and you realize you’ve only got a half left, you better play hard,” Richardson added.