The Sebastopol football team got a final tuneup for the regular season last week with a road trip to Nanih Waiya.
The Bobcats started slow but used a couple of big defensive play and took a 14-0 win over the Warriors in a two-quarter contest.
First-year coach Keith Brown liked what he saw out of his team.
“I was really pleased with our effort,” Brown said. “Nanih Waiya is a good football team and it was a physical football game. We started out a bit sluggish and had a fumbled snap and didn’t start out well. But I thought we turned that around.”
After punting on their opening series, the Warriors took the ball and drove the field before turning the ball as Andarius McDougle intercepted a pass and took it 89 yards for a touchdown.
“They came out and hit us in the mouth,” Brown said of the Warriors. “It took us six or seven plays to match their physicality. They drove the ball for about seven minutes and then we got a turnover and and that sparked us. From that point on, I thought we were the most physical team. We still have some things to clean up but the effort was really good and that’s what we were pleased to see.”
Sebastopol’s only score came in the second period when Kari Micheals hit Jess Johnson on a 22-yard touchdown pass.
“On our second possession, we played a lot better on offense and took it down and scored,” Brown said. “I thought the offense got better as the night went on. It just took a little time to get into the flow. They might have thrown the first punch but it woke us up. You just can’t match that kind of physical effort in practice.”
Brown said one of the bright spots was the play of the defense.
“I thought the defense played really well,” Brown said. “They rallied to the football and it wasn’t just one guy making solo tackles. It was 11 white shirts going to the football and that was good to see. We did some good things but kept it very vanilla. We will add some more wrinkles as the weeks go on.”
This week’s game
The Bobcats will open the regular season as they host McAdams on Friday night.
Last year, Sebastopol took a 37-8 win over the Bulldogs.
“They played Leake County last week and beat them 6-0,” Brown said. “They are going to have athletes. They have a new coaching staff so we can’t go off anything from the past. But it looks like they are going to have a solid ball club. I don’t care who we are playing, it’s the home opener. We will be excited and will give it our best effort.”
Brown said more than an opponent, the Bobcats need to clean up the errors from last week.
“We need to clean up the things that we did wrong,” Brown said. “We need to have a good week of practice and put on a good game for the home crowd. They don’t have a lot of depth so hopefully, we can use some tempo and jump on them early.”
