Dragons drop opener to Ukiah

The 25th season for head coach Mick O’Meara and his good friend and long time assistant Mike Mulas looked like it got off to a good start on Friday night, but then things fell apart.
The Ukiah Wildcats scored 22 unanswered points in the 4th quarter, including a touchdown on an interception return by Matt Gang for the go-ahead score, to come from behind and defeat the Sonoma Valley Dragons, 28-14.
After leading 14-6 going into the 4th quarter, the Sonoma Dragons were looking to continue the defense that had allowed them to hold a potent Wildcat offense to only a first quarter touchdown when Wildcats quarterback Kyle Morris took it himself on quarterback keeper, going 35 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to two. He then beat Steven Murden to the right goal-line pylon for the two-point conversion to tie the contest.
After the interception by Gang, the Dragons were able to move down the field on their next drive, getting close to the Wildcats red zone as they looked to tie up the game, but quarterback Jake Powers was picked off by Gabe Ott on a 4th-and-10 play with about four minutes to go in the contest.
The Dragons then forced a punt, but on the ensuing drive, Powers had a pass tipped, and Wildcats linebacker Cody Allan intercepted it. That led to the Wildcats scoring on a 2-yard touchdown run by Marcos Hernandez to end the scoring.
Mike Mulas had 12 tackles for the Dragons to lead the team after playing with a knee injury. Offensively, Steve Filippi had six catches for 91 yards and caught two touchdown passes from Powers.
Sonoma will now try to regroup as they host Vallejo on Friday night at Arnold Field. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. The game will be carried live on KSVY 91.3 FM, KSVY.org and SVTV 27 starting at 7:15 for the pre-game show.