Prep football roundup: First-half damage enough for Maria Carrillo win

Maria Carrillo did all its scoring in the first half as the Pumas opened the season with a 17-7 win against Redwood on Saturday afternoon in Larkspur.

'I thought we played pretty well in the first half,' coach Jay Higgins said. 'Our offense moved the ball and the defense created a couple of turnovers to help us out.

'In the second half, we were sloppy and made some errors that we'll need to iron out.'

Fhestus Chomba got the Pumas' first touchdown on a 9-yard run with 10:18 left in the first quarter.

In the second, Jake Wolski scored on a 1-yard run and Sean Nagle closed out the scoring with a 26-yard field goal.

The Carrillo defense intercepted three passes, one each by Cole Martin, Westley Picard and Max Wright.

Wright and Gabriel DeBaca shared tackling honors with five solos apiece.

Wright also put up good numbers on offense as he averaged 7.4 yards on eight carries.

'Wright and Josh Groesbeck played well on both sides of the ball,' Higgins said.

Redwood scored its touchdown just before halftime.

Piner 35, Emery 12

At Santa Rosa, the Prospectors won but didn't look good doing it.

'We need to clean up a lot of things,' coach John Antonio said following the season-opening victory. It was an ugly game for us.

'We committed a lot of penalties and need to be crisper on offense. We had trouble sustaining drives.'

Piner led 21-0 at halftime. The Prospectors didn't put a point on the board in the third quarter and then scored twice in the final period.

Anesi Ah Ching finished with two touchdowns on runs of 10 and 2 yards.

Piner utilized two quarterbacks and each threw a scoring pass. Dillon Riveras got his team going with a 33-yard toss to Scott Simpson, Jr. and Fernando Ortega connected with Skyler Ito-Lutz for a 31-yard score.

Drake 55, Healdsburg 42

At San Anselmo, the home team overcame a big afternoon by the Greyhounds' Levi Yeley.

Yeley passed for 258 yards and ran for 93 more.

The junior rushed for a pair of touchdowns, one for 18 yards and the other good for 64 yards. He completed 22 of 37 passes and was intercepted twice.

Healdburg trailed 27-26 at halftime, but then was outscored 21-8 in the third period.

St. Helena 55, St. Vincent 6

At Petaluma, the Saints scored on six of their first seven possessions en route to the victory.

'We were very aggressive,' St. Helena coach Brandon Farrell said. 'I thought we played well, especially for the season opener. On defense, we did a good job tackling and shutting St. Vincent down.'

Niko Lopez had a big game. He scored on a 6-yard run, converted a 38-yard field goal and connected on all seven extra-point kicks he attempted.