Casa Grande unravels in the second half

Casa Grande battled visiting Franklin of Elk Grove on even terms until intermission, but tired in the late going in a 43-3 loss Friday night.|

Casa Grande battled visiting Franklin of Elk Grove on even terms until intermission, but tired in the late going in a 43-3 loss Friday night.

The Gaucho defenders yielded only two touchdowns in the first half to the state 12th-ranked Wildcats, but spent most of the final two periods back on the field under the pressure of a relentless attack that produced 26 unanswered points down the stretch.

Both Franklin touchdowns in the first half were set up by critical Casa fumbles inside the Gaucho 35-yard line.

The Gauchos (0-3) now have two weeks to prepare for North Bay League opponents after facing a gauntlet of three consecutive league winners in a murderous pre-league schedule. Franklin came into the contest as a two-time defending Delta Valley Conference champion and two consecutive trips to the Division I playoffs in the Sac Joaquin Section.

There were moments of improved play by the Casa defenders, starting with the first Franklin series inside the 40-yard line. Linebacker Casey Longaker stunted down the middle and threw dangerous running back Lamar Jackson for an eight-yard loss to set the tone. It took the Wildcats nine plays to finally punch in a touchdown on a two-yard keeper by quarterback Jacob Lopez.

Longaker finished with a team best 10 tackles for Casa Grande.

The Gauchos bounced right back on a drive of their own engineered by junior quarterback JJ Anderson. Starting for the second time this season, Anderson connected on back-to-back passes to Jalel Lawson and Joey Markham to punch the ball inside Franklin territory.

With time to pick out his receivers, Anderson found Lawson down the middle with his best toss of the night. The longest play of the game for Casa covered 31 yards.

Later in the drive, Anderson was caught in the backfield on a Wildcat stunt, and Casa brought in Matt Abramo who rammed home a field goal of 34 yards with room to spare to cut the lead to 7-3.

Franklin scored again after a second Gaucho fumble in the second quarter, but the play of the Casa defense was outstanding. The visitors were held on downs on two later series to give Casa a second opportunity to score after an exchange of punts.

As time ran out in the first half, Abramo got a couple of chances to pull the Gauchos even closer, but both of his field goal attempts were wide of the mark, although they had plenty of distance.

Despite the spirited defensive efforts of Longaker, Kevin Donohoe and tackle Brendan Jackson, the Wildcats began to pull away in the second half. Franklin took advantage of its quickness around the edge to post some big figures on he ground and control ball possession in the second half. A couple more touchdown runs by the elusive Jackson put the contest out of Casa’s reach.

Most of the Franklin success came outside the tackles as the Wildcats made the most of their superiority in overall team speed. On the other side, Casa Grande could not get anything going offensively in the second half.

“We played good defense in the first half,” said Casa coach Trent Herzog, “There are just a lot of things we are not doing because of inexperience, but I think if we stick together and work on fundamentals, the team will be all right.”

About his difficult schedule Herzog noted, “The idea is to get ready for the teams in the NBL.

“Everybody we have played this year is quicker and stronger than NBL teams. I thought we would be better at this point, but the team will be all right once we work on simple things and get into league play.”

Franklin defeated the Casa junior varsity team, 36-7, in the preliminary contest.

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