Bullard second-half comeback falls short in regional. Arax: ‘This team hung in there’
Bullard High football coach Don Arax summed up the difference in Friday’s regional bowl game: Central Catholic plays a “physical brand of football.”
After capturing their second-ever Central Section championship, Arax’s Knights traveled to Modesto to take on the Raiders in the CIF State Division 2-AA Northern California Regional Final.
Central Catholic (13-1) came out aggressive, gutting the Knights for 21 unanswered first-half points. Bullard refused to go down easy and scored 20 points in the fourth, but the comeback fell short, ending its season with a 44-41 loss.
After starting the season 1-3, the Knights bounced back and entered Friday’s contest on a six game-winning streak.
“We started off rocky,” Arax said. “But this team hung in there and played physical football, and they did that again tonight, so I’m proud of them for that.”
The Sac-Joaquin Section Division II champion Raiders made their presence felt early, keeping the ball on the ground for 27 straight run plays. Sophomore quarterback Tyler Wentworth didn’t throw his first pass until there was less than a minute left in the first half.
“It’s a physical brand of football that kind of took our guys by surprise at the beginning.” Arax said.
Central Catholic opened up a 21-0 lead before Roland Russo found Wendell Ware for an 18-yard touchdown to put the Knights on the board with 6 minutes 4 seconds left in the second quarter. Another score late in the half got them within 28-13 heading into halftime.
Bullard had its chances. The defense came up with a fumble on the Raiders’ 37-yard line and the Knights scored on a 34-yard pass from Russo to Daizon Allen to bring Bullard within eight with 9:52 left to play.
Russo threw two more touchdown passes in the final quarter, a 67-yarder to Jayden Davis and a 4-yard connection to Ware. The senior completed 25 of 40 passes for 379 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.
“We had good matchups,” Arax said. “Our receivers were tough to cover and those were tough matchups for them. ... For the most part in the second half, we made the necessary plays.”
Ultimately, the slow start had the Knights playing catchup for the entire second half, and though they got within three on Russo’s final touchdown of the game, they just ran out of time.
“Football games – when you’ve got two evenly matched teams – come down to a few plays,” Arax said. “They got those few plays and we didn’t.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2021 at 6:54 AM.
