Nick Daniel’s defense leads improbable Green Valley comeback
Antoin Kealoha booted the game-winning field goal Thursday night, but there’s no way he and his Green Valley teammates would have been in that position if not for junior linebacker Nick Daniel.
Daniel recovered two fumbles, intercepted a pass and stuffed a running back in the end zone for a safety — all in the fourth quarter — to lead the Gators to a 26-24 come-from-behind win at Foothill.
“He came to me after the second touchdown and said, ‘Coach, I got you. I got you, coach, I got you,’” Green Valley coach Brian Castro said. “And he had us. He did a hell of a job.”
Daniel recovered his second fumble at the Foothill 45 with 2:13 to play. Desmond Bowers had two big runs to help the Gators move to the Foothill 13, and Kealoha nailed a 31-yard field goal with 49 seconds left to give Green Valley its only lead at 26-24.
“When I saw that field goal, man, I was happy,” Daniel said. “I loved it because it got the win. That’s all that mattered.”
The Gators (8-1, 4-1 Southeast League) trailed 24-7 after Foothill’s Jacob Wolf hit a 21-yard field goal on the final play of the third quarter.
In need of a spark, Castro turned to Bowers, a junior who hadn’t carried the ball all game.
Bowers rushed for 47 yards on nine carries on the first drive of the fourth quarter, capped by his 3-yard TD run to cut the lead to 24-14 with 8:10 left.
“We just needed to move the football,” Castro said. “We needed to establish the run there. We felt like if we could get something going on offense, we would have a chance. And luckily, like in a lot of sports, you catch momentum and then good things happen.”
Then it was Daniel’s turn, as he recovered the first of two fumbles, this one at the Foothill 31.
After a 29-yard pass from A.J. Barilla to Kealoha on third-and-10 kept the drive alive, Bowers scored on a 2-yard run to make it 24-21 with 5:49 left.
Daniel intercepted a pass, and Green Valley drove inside the 10, but a fake field-goal attempt was stopped at the 1. No problem for the Gators, as Daniel stuffed Issac Oliva in the end zone for a safety to make the score 24-23 with 4:13 left.
“Coach said to pursue the ball, I pursued the ball,” Daniel said. “A couple quarters before then I wasn’t playing right, and I stepped up for my team.”
So did Bowers, who finished with 94 yards on 18 fourth-quarter carries.
“Desmond’s a great running back,” Daniel said. “Just straight forward. He runs forward and hits the hole and is one of the best running backs we’ve got.”
The win secured second place in the Southeast League for the Gators and gave them a home game against Valley in the Sunrise Region quarterfinals next week.
“Whoever we’ve got, they’ve got a long game coming,” Daniel said. “A long game coming. Long.”
Koy Riggin passed for 159 yards and three touchdowns to lead Foothill (7-2, 3-2), but the sophomore was intercepted three times.
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Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow @DamonSeiters on Twitter.