Mother Nature wins; Coyotes share championship

REDDING - It's often been said that a tie in sports is like kissing your sister. If that's truly the case, then the Willows Coyotes midgets got a big, wet smacker on Saturday in the NorCalFed Super Bowl.

With weather conditions alternating between rain, torrential rain and monsoon-like rain, the Coyotes and Chico Jaguars had played to a 6-6 halftime tie on the all-weather sports turf of Moynahan Field on the campus of Enterprise High School.

Then waterlogged players, fans and cheerleaders were treated to a halftime thunder and lightning show.

And in the spirit of safety, that was all the game officials needed to see.

After summoning the men in stripes up to the press box and discussing their options, NorCalFed Commissioner Bill Fox made the decision to call the game with the score tied, and both teams will be receiving identical trophies and medals.

If the game was to have continued, it could only have done so 30 minutes after a lightning sighting, and with each subsequent flash of lightning, play would have had to be delayed again.

The halftime decision also made a pair of plays during the first half even bigger.

Following Chico's touchdown - a 5-yard carry by Ryan Busby - Luis Garcia fought his way through blockers to block the PAT kick, leaving the score at 6-0.

Gilberto Macias answered for the Coyotes with a 55-yard scamper to the end zone, but the conversion attempt was stopped and the score remained 6-6.

The Willows defense might have gotten an assist from the weather gods toward the end of the first half, when the Jaguars were marching but fumbled the ball away at the Coyotes' 1-yard line.

So for the 2012 season, the Willows Coyotes are the co-champions of the NorCalFed's Midget Division.

They are: Daniel Chavez, Tommy Yang, Randy Yang, Leo Esparza, Gilberto Macias, Brian Ceccon, Peter Yang, Michael Del Rosario, Eduardo Haro, Reese Goforth, Jose Santillan, Luke Taylor, Angel Abold, Angel Gonzalez, Noah Gonzalez, David Bass, Anthony Flores, Noah Apadoca and Luis Garcia.

CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.