Cimolino special kind of runner at Fort Bragg

<p>Sweating out the flu just a day before his biggest football game, Jake Cimolino was determined to lead Fort Bragg past Salesian on Saturday and into this week’s sectional title game.</p><p>Showing little sign of weakness, Cimolino rumbled for 224 yards and three scores — highlighted by a game-breaking 72-yard run — as the Timberwolves beat the team that bounced Fort Bragg from the playoffs a year earlier.</p><p>Having duplicated his record 2,091-yard rushing total from a year ago, Cimolino looks to surpass that mark against Justin-Siena at 7 p.m. Friday at Santa Rosa High and put Fort Bragg’s career yardage mark out of reach. In addition to his 4,182 yards rushing, Cimolino also holds the career touchdown record with 59 scores.</p><p>Both durable and very good, Cimolino is the soft spoken star on the best Fort Bragg team in maybe a decade.</p><p>“He’s a pretty special kid,” said Fort Bragg coach Jack Moyer.</p><p>Cimolino set Fort Bragg’s single season rushing mark as a junior, but worked hard to improve heading into this fall’s campaign. Cimolino and the team’s other seniors had one aim — to reach the North Coast Section Division IV title game.</p><p>“We’ve always been waiting for this opportunity. It’s our dream game,” Cimolino said. </p><p>This season has been all the more spectacular because Cimolino missed much of the Middletown game and half of the Cloverdale contest due to a recurring left shoulder injury. Cimolino had a pair of surgeries on the shoulder his first two years with the Timberwolves football program.</p><p>After reinjuring the shoulder on a tackle he made in the Middletown game, Cimolino was forced to the sideline and Fort Bragg lost its only two games this season.</p><p>To help avoid aggravating the injury, Cimolino no longer plays linebacker.</p><p>“It’s a little sore, but it’s not bad,” he said, reflecting a toughness his coach and teammates admire.</p><p>“That kid is just tremendously tough,” said quarterback Brent Moyer. “He inspires like the whole team. It motivates everybody else just to step it up and play like Jake.”</p><p>Saturday’s game provided another example of Cimolino’s toughness. Cimolino threw up on the sideline during a third quarter drive after a long run that ended with a hard hitting tackle. He had been drinking a lot of water to battle the flu. But he returned for the next offensive series and would later tear off the longest run on the day for the go-ahead score.</p><p>“He pushes himself so much. His work ethic is just unbelievable,” Moyer said.</p><p>Salesian coach Chad Nightingale was impressed.</p><p>“He was hit on every single run and still made plays,” he said.</p><p>As Fort Bragg’s most dangerous offensive threat, Cimolino opens up the game for Moyer and the receivers.</p><p>“He can always bust one,” Moyer said. “It helps our receivers get that extra step. Our receivers have done a pretty good job this year of catching the ball and getting yards after the catch.”</p><p>Even with teams targeting him more, Cimolino continues to churn out yards. Moyer said Cimolino reads blocks better and is more patient, in addition to being stronger and faster.</p><p>“He has real good vision. He’s pretty consistent,” Moyer said. “He’s turning into a mature player.”</p><p>Cimolino — a 4.4 grade point scholar and student body president — also plays with a measure of humility.</p><p>His coaches had to tell Cimolino the runs against Salesian put him over the 2,000 yard mark for the season.</p><p>“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “I’ve got to thank my lineman and everyone for blocking. It’s kind of their record as well as mine.”</p><p>A great season for both Cimolino and the Timberwolves could be even more special with a win Friday.</p><p>“We went into the playoffs just thinking one team at a time and here we are in the championship,” Cimolino said. “We want to get it.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Michael Coit at 521-5470 or mike.coit@pressdemocrat.com.</p>