LAST WEEK: Another painful lesson for the Gauchos

The lessons for Casa Grande’s inexperienced Gauchos continued to be painful Friday night as they lost their home opener to Napa’s Indian’s, 31-0.

The loss was the second straight for the Gauchos during a challenging pre-league schedule, while the win was the second straight over a North Bay League opponent for the Indians, who defeated Montgomery in their opening game.

Despite the Gauchos second lopsided loss following a 47-14 defeat at Analy in their opening game, Casa coach Trent Herzog remained optimistic. “We played with a lot of pride and intensity, especially in the first half, the coach said. “We played with a lot more intensity than we did against Analy. I was happy with our effort.”

Casa Grande did play well in the first half, especially on defense, but could never finish drives and reached the halftime discussion trailing, 10-0.

Whatever hopes the Gauchos held of making a comeback were muscled away by the Indians when they opened the third quarter with a 65-yard 13-play drive that consumed the first six minutes of the second half.

Junior JJ Anderson got his first start of the year at quarterback and completed his first two passes. He finished by hitting on 13 of 20 throws for 135 yards. However, the Gauchos couldn’t complement Anderson’s passing with a rushing attack. For the second straight game, an opponent was able to neutralize Casa’s size with a multitude of linebacker stunts. For the game, Casa Grande gained just 53 ground yards. Sophomore Spencer Torkelson was the leading rusher with 31 yards in seven carries.

While Casa Grande had trouble sustaining drives by converting on third down, it was just the opposite for the Indians who kept the Gaucho defense on the field by time-after-time converting on third and fourth downs, even after Casa had put them into long-yardage situations with strong first and second-down efforts.

The format was set in Napa’s first possession when the Indians marched 77 yards in 15 plays, taking seven minutes off the scoreboard in the process. Twice in the march, the Indians converted on third-down plays and once kept the chains moving by turning a fourth-and-seven situation into a first-and-goal play at the Gaucho 10-yard line on a seven-yard run by Mac Neilson.

Neilson gained 69 yards in 11 carries and scored two touchdowns. One of those touchdowns did not come on the initial drive, because Casa’s Casey Longaker and Julian Lopez, both game-long defensive standouts, stuffed Napa’s running quarterback Kiel Brown on a fourth-down play at the Gaucho 7-yard line.

The drive did, however, yield three points when strong-legged Napa kicker Caen Healy connected on a 24-yard field goal.

Casa Grande’s defense, with Longaker and Lopez in the forefront, stood firm for the remainder of the first half, until Neilson broke free around the left end to out race the Casa defenders for a 21-yard touchdown jaunt just 29 seconds from the half-time respite.

Still, the Gauchos were feeling good about their chances entering the intermission trailing just 10-0.

That optimism didn’t quickly fade as the second half began, but it was slowly wiped away by the Indians, who went on a methodical 65-yard, six-minute drive to open the half. Casa Grande appeared to have the march halted with Napa facing a fourth-and-six play at the Gaucho 34, but Brown connected with tight end Colton Forster for a 20-plus yard gain that was only partially nullified by an illegal block. That still left the Indians with enough yardage for a drive-sustaining first down.

The touchdown came on a third-down 10-yard run by Neilson. The PAT kick by Healy made it 17-0, and the Gauchos were out of responses.

As the second half wore on, the Gaucho defense wore down. Nolan Keinhofer ran for a 23-yard touchdown and Brown passed to Auston Aaron for an 11-yard TD to complete the scoring.

Casa Grande had only three first downs in the second half, and those didn’t come until the Gauchos’ final possession of the game, when they drove into Napa territory for the only time in the half, before stalling at the Indian 45-yard line.

In addition to Longaker, who had eight tackles and Lopez, who had six, the Gauchos received strong defense play from Kevin Donohoe with seven tackles, Ryan Lowe with five, Brendan Jackson with six and Andrew Floerke with six.

Jaleel Lawson continued to be a standout in the Casa defensive backfield. He again played exceptional pass defense and was quick to respond to runs, taking part in five tackles.