In last year’s CIF playoff contest, the Nighthawks of Del Norte High School defeated the visiting Pirates of Oceanside 26-11. It was almost a different scenario Friday, Nov. 8, on the field of Oceanside High as the favored No. 8 seed Pirates took an early 21-0 lead. Ultimately, though, the final score of 42-35 went in favor of the No. 9 Nighthawks.
Oceanside’s early lead in the first round of Division 1 playoffs was built on Joe Vinup, 142 yards passing, throwing a 39-yard pass to teammate Ayden Goodwin, followed by leading rusher Neke Letuli, 106 yards rushing, scoring his first touchdown on a 32-yarder. Dave Daniels followed on a 97-yard run for a touchdown.
The Del Norte Nighthawks came back to cut the lead at 7 to 21-14 as quarterback Diesel Taylor threw for 184 yards and 2 touchdown passes, 1 of 6 yards to Anthony Taylor along with 31 yards to Braxton Jones (68 yards receiving).
The Oceanside Pirates went up at 28-14 as Vinup threw a 27-yard pass to Kymani Nua (32 yards receiving). Diesel Taylor for Del Norte connected on a 31-yarder to Anthony Taylor (180 yards receiving), who scored his second touchdown to cut the Pirates’ lead at 28-21.
It was a run-and-gun offense for both squads as Oceanside scored their last touchdown as tailback Nua scored on a 3-yard run to put the Pirates up 35-21.
All the rest was for Del Norte as Diesel Taylor connected to Anthony Taylor for the third time for 21 yards to cut the Pirates’ lead within 7.
Nighthawk Ryan Remigio, 106 yards rushing, scored 2 touchdowns of 13 yards each, including the game winner for Del Norte with the final score of 42-35.
“A great job by our defense they stepped up for,” former Green Bay Packer and current Del Norte head football coach Nick Barnett said. “We didn’t play the way we wanted to at the beginning. We found a way on how to pick up the win and we did.
“We keyed in on Neke Letuli as Oceanside has an excellent ballclub, and we knew it was going to be a battle,” he added. “As I tell my guys, if we go down we still have to fight and to keep going for us to win.”
Del Norte will travel to San Marcos in a Division 1 quarter final game on Friday, Nov. 15.
“For us to play San Marcos next round, we have to prepare ourselves like we do for every contest,” Barnett said.
