Santa Rosa Moves on to Playoffs With League Victory Over Temecula Prep
By Joe Quinn November 1, 2019
With the victory over Temecula Prep in Winchester, Santa Rosa took third place in the Southwest League behind Cornerstone of Wildomar and California Military Institute of Perris. The win moves them into the Division 14 Playoffs with a game to be played next week against a “To Be Determined” opponent. Earlier in the year they played Cornerstone close losing by 6 but scoring 30 points in the effort. They lost last week to CMI while playing what seemed a flat game. The victory this week over Temecula Prep saw them retain the Liberty Trophy emblematic of the annual game between these two nearby and arch-rivals. The 24 points was a good effort as Temecula had the lowest “points against” by a wide margin in the league on the season.
Santa Rosa played tough-nosed football on both sides of the ball tonight in this convincing away game victory over Temecula Prep. The first quarter saw the Rangers taking the lead as Tim Marlow and Kai Loquet scored TD’s on the ground. Loquet scored on a beautifully executed long run down the right side racing past his opponents and Marlow took his in from the eight up the middle. Marlow converted on both TD’s as the Rangers took the lead 16-0 and never relinquished it. The large Ranger crowd got into the game and like the Ranger squad only became subdued a bit in the third quarter.
The Ranger defense controlled the line of scrimmage through the four quarters with few exceptions as Roman Wombler, Charles Schroeder, Joshua Zaballa and Daniel Heiner and the front seven kept forcing the Patriots to three and out. Good deep coverage by the secondary also shut down the Patriots passing attack with limited exceptions. In the first half alone the Patriots were forced to punt on three occasions. On one of those deep punts the Ranger player fumbled the reception and the Patriots recovered deep in Ranger territory. Fortunately for the Rangers, Temecula was called for holding and they punted again from deeper in their own territory.
The Rangers seemed to have it all in gear over the total game with a few lapses early in the third quarter. The Ranger Special Teams were reliable all night as well. With 34 seconds left in the 1st half Kaitlyn Restrepo’s kickoff had the Patriots starting at their own 2 yard line and not able to move the ball with limited time available..
The Ranger defense was beaten badly on the first Temecula TD however. The Patriots executed a double reverse pass with the receiver uncovered in the end zone. That score with a successful two point conversion brought them within a TD of the Rangers at 16-8.
The Temecula Prep successful execution early in the 3rd quarter, usually a sign of good coaching half-time adjustments, was not enough though as Santa Rosa regained their footing and kept the pressure on the Patriot offense.
The Patriots did score again in the 3rd quarter but failed on the two point conversion attempt. But they were now within reach of the Rangers at 16-14. However, that would be all they had for the game and the Rangers would score again with Marlow taking it through the left side and outrunning the Patriot defense in the open field. With the successful two point conversion they took a commanding lead and the game ended with the Rangers stopping Temecula on downs deep in Patriots territory and then taking a knee for the last minute on the Patriot 18.
