Northwood High School players and coaches celebrate after Friday’s victory over Kennedy of Delano. (Photos courtesy Northwood High School).
Northwood High School’s football players, who captured the CIF Division 8 title last weekend, continued a season to remember with a 10-7 victory over Kennedy of Delano Friday night in the CIF Southern Regional 4AA Bowl Game in Delano near Bakersfield.
Northwood earned the Southern California championship with the victory.
The Timberwolves (14-1) move on to the CIF State Championship Bowl Game next weekend to face Escalon in Northern California.
Northwood lost in the CIF regional bowl game opener last season and players indicated they wanted to avenge that loss.
They did just that Friday night.
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Northwood took a 10-0 lead in the first half on a field goal by Karim Yowkeem and a touchdown run by Adam Harper, according to offensive coordinator Phil Roh.
The difference in the game, according to Coach JC Clarke, was the successful field goal by Yowkeen.
“Our field goal hit the top of the bar and fell over,” Clarke told OC Sports Zone by telephone as the team was returning Friday night. “That was the difference in the game. We got a good roll on that one, 10-0 was pretty good, but they came back.
“They had no two-way players, and we counted, we had eight two-way players out there. They wore us down a little bit in the second half but our kids had a lot of guts and there they were at the 20-yard line right at the end and fourth and one, and they’re a running team and we stopped them.
“It was just another great, great fourth down play by us. I couldn’t be happier.”
After that, the Timberwolves, with about three minutes remaining, turned to Adam Harper to run out the clock.
“He runs for two first downs that runs out the clock,” Clarke said. “They had their timeouts left and would have gotten the ball back with a couple minutes left but Adam with a couple first downs clinched it.”
Roh said the defense was outstanding all night.
Danial Kamal, Adam Harper, Joseph Harper and Dominic Cotton stood out, Roh said. Joseph Harper and Ahmad Kazi both had interceptions.
“Defense wins championships,” Roh said.
“I could not have been happier,” Clarke said about the defense. “They were swarming the ball and they were swarming the ball, they reminded me of the old Irvine teams. It was really exciting.”
Escalon (11-3) defeated Pleasant Valley 42-20 in the Northern California bowl game.
Clarke said the Northwood players were alway looking for another long trip next weekend when the Timberwolves will try and win a state title in the 4AA division.
The trip to the Bakersfield area took about four hours, Clarke said.
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It’s a long road trip for Northwood in regional bowl game
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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