Game of the Week: Terra Nova opens season with loss on record

“Through the investigation, the Terra Nova football team, the vast majority of them left a bench area and had a fight,” CCS commissioner Duane Morgan said.

Terra Nova head coach Tim Adams was notified the morning of Thursday, Aug. 24 — one day before the scheduled opener with Gunderson — of the imposed forfeiture, he said.

“It came as a surprise,” Adams said. “We thought that because it was a scrimmage — we knew we were going to have some penalty, we thought Moreau Catholic would too, but that was not the case.”

Moreau Catholic is not a part of the CCS, but belongs to the North Coast Section.

A video posted to YouTube showed, after a play was whistled dead, a Moreau Catholic player walking up and kicking Terra Nova running back Reggie Auelua. Pushing and shoving followed, and the players on the Terra Nova sideline converged onto the fracas shortly after.

“We dominated the scrimmage … against Moreau Catholic,” Adams said. “That’s why Moreau got frustrated.”

Auelua’s rushing performance was a promising start for the Tigers, who relied on one primary running back last season in now-graduated Saini Saini. Auelua totaled just 11 carries in 2016, but figures to assume Saini’s backfield role on this year’s dual-threat attack.

“He’s 190 pounds of pure muscle and he’s going to be a good one,” Adams said.

Friday’s showdown with at Scotts Valley Falcons at 3:30 p.m. will be the first official between the Santa Cruz County program and Terra Nova since Adams took over the program in 2014. However, there is more of a recent rivalry between the two teams, as Scotts Valley has played in the Terra Nova Tiger Air Passing Tournament the past two years.

“They’ve got an outstanding quarterback, they’ve got a couple running back that run really hard,” Adams said. “They’re very athletic.”

The three-pronged attack Adams is referring to is junior quarterback Kyle Rajala, and senior running backs Anthony Locatelli and Ryan Conte. Rajala is in his first year helming the offense after serving as an all-league wide receiver last season. In a recent interview with the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Scotts Valley head coach Louie Walters called Rajala one of the best athletes in the history of the school.

Terra Nova, of course, brings the pedigree of one of the best athletic families in the history of the school to the quarterback position in senior Nate Gordon. Nate’s older brother, Anthony — currently a redshirt sophomore backup QB for Luke Falk at Washington State — is the all-time leading passer in Tigers’ history.

Scotts Valley won its opening game last Friday 35-7 over Los Altos. In recent San Mateo County gridiron history, the Falcons are more synonymous with getting eliminated in last year’s Central Coast Section Division IV playoff opener by Terra Nova’s archrival, Half Moon Bay.

“It’s all about preparation,” Adams said. “We’re physically and mentally prepared. We just have to show up and play our game.”

Adams said the silver lining to last week’s forfeiture was it gave his Tigers a four-day head start on preparing for Scotts Valley.

“We accept our punishment of a one-game suspension,” Adams said. “But we started preparing the next day for Scotts Valley. We had four extra days to practice for them. So we’re looking forward to that.”