Ukiah rolls past Santa Rosa 45-22 in North Bay League football showdown

The two surprise teams of the North Bay League met Friday night at Ernie Nevers Field, and only one of them can claim a spotless record now that league play has begun.

Visiting Ukiah scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions to close the second quarter and open the third, thumping Santa Rosa 45-22 and improving to 4-0 for the first time since 2008.

“It’s not about turnarounds,” Ukiah coach Jonathon Dewey said. “It’s about grinding out wins and getting a little bit better each day. If you trust the process and take pride, good things will happen.”

Perhaps it was a wake-up call for Santa Rosa, which also entered the game 3-0.

The Panthers had their moments, but were eventually done in by Ukiah’s swarming defense and diverse passing game. Santa Rosa quarterback Isaiah Steele did not throw an interception during the preseason, but was picked four times by the Wildcats, including three times by safety Eddie Holbrook.

Not all of those interceptions could be laid at Steele’s feet, though.

“When you see the ball hit off a receiver’s hands, that’s definitely not the quarterback’s fault,” Santa Rosa coach Denis Brunk said. “And there was miscommunication between the quarterback and the receivers, that was definitely part of it.”

Ukiah also recovered a Panthers fumble.

The Wildcats wasted no time in asserting their dominance.

Holbrook got his first interception on the third play of the game, and given possession in Santa Rosa territory, Ukiah was into the end zone just 3:46 into the game.

By the 4:08 mark of the second quarter, Ukiah went up 20-0. And after Steele made it a game by shaking a tackler and sprinting 71 yards for a touchdown on the next possession, the Wildcats made it moot with a 71-yard drive, scoring on Brett Hofstetter’s 19-yard pass to Nick Brocchini with 15 seconds on the clock. Ukiah was having trouble with its 2-point conversions, but not much else, and it was 26-8 at halftime.

The real back-breaker came after the break, though. Brocchini had trouble collecting the second-half kickoff and was dumped at his own 2. Sensing their chance to climb back into the game, the Panthers were fired up.

But Ukiah moved methodically down the field. On third-and-9 from the Santa Rosa 40-yard line, Hofstetter rolled right and threw to Brian Munoz for 22 yards; the Panthers yelled that Hofstetter was past the line of scrimmage when he released the ball, but they didn’t get the call. On the next play, Holbrook took a pitch and ran 16 yards for a touchdown.

“To have a miscue on the kickoff and then drive 98 yards is huge,” Dewey said. “That’s a dagger in the heart sometimes.”

It was quite a day for Holbrook. The senior also threw a touchdown pass to Brocchini on a halfback option.

Hofstetter was superb, too. The lanky, bespectacled quarterback completed 15 of 24 passes for 210 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception. The 6-foot-3 Hofstetter is deceptively agile, too. He ran for 83 yards Friday.

Steele picked up steam in the second half, connecting with Cassius Banks for two long passes and a 10-yard touchdown, and hitting Kalei Aukui with a 27-yard scoring pass. But when it mattered most, the Ukiah defense was hard to penetrate against.

“I don’t think we’re great at any one spot on defense,” Dewey said. “But what we can do is play strong team defense. We come hard all the time and we don’t get out of position.”

Santa Rosa’s final touchdown came with 27 seconds left, when the matter was long settled.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.