Greyhounds prevail over Dragons in hard-fought contest

For the second straight week, the Sonoma Dragons football team participated in a Homecoming game. Unfortunately, the result in the second game was not what they had enjoyed in the first.
Thanks to a passing attack that went for nearly 300 yards and some good offensive creativity, the Healdsburg Greyhounds bounced back from a shutout loss to Analy the previous week and defeated the Dragons in a Sonoma County League match up, 29-22.
For Sonoma (1-4, 1-1 SCL), it was another case of getting down early, as Healdsburg (5-1, 1-1 SCL) jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter thanks to a couple big plays: an 85-yard touchdown on a bomb to senior wide receiver Dante Fountain from senior quarterback Zack Shippey, and then a tricky double pass that went for 42 yards. That play led to senior running back Andy Phillips diving in from 3 yards out to put the Hounds up two scores.
From there, Sonoma established momentum on their end of the field, scoring a touchdown before the end of the half on a bruising run by senior running back Nick Fedrick from 5 yards out. Senior kicker Sam Wallace’s point after was blocked, and it was 14-6 at halftime.
The Dragons defense would step up to start the second half, even without senior star linebacker Mike Mulas, who injured his knee and didn’t play much in the third quarter. The Dragons picked off two Shippey passes that led to a touchdown for senior wide receiver Steven Filippi from 10 yards out and a 37 yard field goal from Wallace to put the Dragons up 15-14.
From there, Shippey found senior wide receiver Caleb Rummonds for a 35-yard touchdown, and after a power sweep on the 2-point conversion right out of legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockney’s playbook, the Hounds went up 22-15.
Sonoma answered with their own 35-yard touchdown from senior quarterback Jake Powers to Filippi to tie the game at 22, but Healdsburg would come right back with the go-ahead score with under two minutes to play on a swing screen to senior wide receiver Ian Gallagher from 5 yards out to give the Hounds the lead for good.
The Dragons had a Hail Mary fling for the endzone get knocked down to end the contest after an interesting drive full of controversy and good clock management, but in the end, it wasn’t enough as the Dragons did not get the big plays they needed to control the game for an extended period of time.
The Dragons will come back home to host El Molino on Friday night at Arnold Field. El Molino shocked rival Analy in the Golden Apple game on Friday night, nipping the Tigers, 21-20. It was El Molino’s first league win in over four years.
The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. KSVY and SVTV will have live coverage of the game starting at 7:15 p.m.