Williams praises improvement in 35-34 loss to Del Norte

Fallbrook High School head football coach Kyle Williams was disappointed for his players after the Warriors’ 35-34 home loss Sept. 20 against Del Norte, but Williams himself was pleased with the team’s improvement rather than disappointed that any of numerous plays in the games could have given the Warriors a victory.

“I was more disappointed for the kids. They grew up a lot in that game,” Williams said.

“We showed a ton of improvement,” Williams said. “If we can continue to improve at that rate it’s going to be great for us and great for our program.”

Fallbrook’s previous game was a 41-6 defeat against Mount Carmel on Sept. 6. Williams and his coaching staff focused on improvement for the team. “We saw that, so we were pleased about that,” Williams said. “We got better, and we will continue to get better.”

Del Norte scored the tying touchdown with 1:16 left in the game before kicking the winning extra point. “Unfortunately they made more plays than we did in the final drive,” Williams said.

This is the first season that the playoff divisions are based on competitive balance rather than enrollment; Fallbrook is in Division III and Del Norte is in Division II. “We competed with people who realistically they didn’t think we’d be able to compete with,” Williams said.

The Nighthawks had a 28-21 halftime lead. “We held them scoreless in the second half until the final drive, so our defensive players made great adjustments in the second half,” Williams said.

The Warriors scored on their first possession of the second half, and the extra point created a 28-28 tie. Fallbrook then scored with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, although the extra point attempt was unsuccessful. “They had real good athletes coming off the edge to try to block our kicks,” Williams said. “We just rushed it a little bit.”

Del Norte countered with the touchdown and extra point on the next possession. Fallbrook’s final attempt took the Warriors to midfield before they were stopped on fourth down.

“We played really well,” Williams said.

Fallbrook’s offense rushed for 323 yards, including 117 yards and four touchdowns from Hayden Loer and 123 yards and one touchdown by Roberto Ramirez. “Our offense played really well in the first half,” Williams said.

That was the half when the defense allowed four touchdowns. “It was just that we couldn’t seem to put both sides together at the same time,” Williams said.

During the fourth quarter, Fallbrook’s defense twice stopped the Nighthawks on fourth down. One of those gave the Warriors the ball at the Del Norte 45, but Fallbrook fumbled on the next play and Del Norte recovered.

The turnover was one of two for Fallbrook during the game; the other was an intercepted pitch pass in the first half. Fallbrook had no takeaways against Del Norte.

“We feel like it was nothing they did to us. It was us being inexperienced and making mistakes,” Williams said.

Williams felt that multiple plays could have reversed the win-loss result. “There wasn’t any one play that caused us to lose that game,” he said.

“We understand that there will be a day when we will win those football games,” Williams said. “When we start to win those football games that’s when we’re going to turn over a new leaf in our program.”

Three of Fallbrook’s next four games are against teams ranked in the top seven in the CIF San Diego Section. “We have a challenging road ahead, one that we’re excited about because we’re really going to find out who wants to compete,” Williams said.

The first of those three games is at home tomorrow night against Carlsbad. “They’re a very talented team, but we’re excited for the opportunity and the challenge,” Williams said.