Marin Catholic Football Nearly Perfect In Playoff Opener

Football is as much a Thanksgiving tradition as turkey. Winning is another holiday tradition for Marin Catholic football.

The top-seeded Wildcats rolled past visiting Sonoma Valley 54-7 Saturday in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs

"It's a lot of fun to get to this point and to be undefeated," Marin Catholic quarterback Jared Goff said.

The 11-0 Wildcats earned a second-round matchup at home with ninth-seeded Eureka (8-3), which beat El Cerrito on Friday.

The Wildcats took control over Sonoma Valley (4-7) right away by forcing a fumble. Goff completed a 20-yard pass to Connor Mulcahy to put Marin Catholic on the board with 11 minutes to go in the first quarter. Goff hooked up with Chris Tewhill 3 minutes later for a 14-0 Marin Catholic lead.

The Wildcats' Nick Devere took his turn in the spotlight with a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Goff and Andrew Celis engineered a 62-yard scoring drive, capped by Akili Terry's 10-yard run to give Marin Catholic a 28-0 lead just before the close of the first quarter.

"We were fortunate to get a turnover early," Wildcats coach Mazi Moayed said. "We got the momentum rolling there and kept it up. All the guys did a great job."

Touchdown runs of 39 and 4 yards by Terry and Ryan Farney's 19-yard scoring run after a shot pass from Goff gave the Wildcats a comfortable 48-0 halftime lead.

Devere's 85-yard kick return to start the second half gave the Wildcats a 54-0 lead. Sonoma Valley finally got on the board with 2:51 left in the game on Colin Clyde's dash into the end zone.

"Now we want to beat Eureka. They're a good team. We need to take it just one week at a time," Goff said.

Marin Catholic took an unspoiled record all the way to the NCS semifinals last year before falling to Encinal.

"We knew Marin Catholic was good. We knew they would try to go for the big plays on us and they did," Sonoma Valley quarterback Dan Deely said. "They're a good team and they did a great job today."