Gauchos suit up determination

The Casa Grande High School football season has come full cycle, from the ugly of an opening 47-14 loss to Analy, to the bad of a five-game losing streak, to the good of a five-game winning streak, to the extraordinary of a 17-14 North Coast Section win over Maria Carrillo last Saturday night that earned the Gauchos a spot in the NCS Division 2 semifinals.

The Gaucho improvement momentum that began with a 19-14 regular-season win over Maria Carrillo’s Pumas reached full speed on Maria Carrillo’s natural turf Saturday when Casa’s inspired defense, for the second time this season, bottled up the potent Maria Carrillo offense.

Casa Grande did some good things on both sides of the football, but it wasn’t really either the offense or the defense that propelled the Gauchos’ to their second straight playoff victory. It was something much more elementary - determination.

Maria Carrillo led a body-battering defensive struggle, 10-3, at the end of three periods, but Casa Grande owned the fortitude-testing fourth quarter to wrap up the most soul satisfying of its six victories in what is now a 6-6 season. Maria Carrillo finished its season at 7-5.

“We didn’t play very well in the first half,” observed Casa Grande coach Trent Herzog, “but the kids never quit. They never got down on themselves. They stepped up and made the plays they had to make in the second half.”

A key for the Gauchos was containing Maria Carrillo super back Alex Netherda. Although he remained a danger the entire game, and finished as the contest’s leading runner with 102 yards and two touchdowns in 15 carries, Casa Grande was generally able to swarm him to the ground with its best team-tackling show of the season.

“He’s the best player we’ve played against all year,” Herzog said, “and we were able to contain him.”

Casa Grande started strongly.

On its first play from scrimmage, sophomore Max Cerini sliced up the middle for 34 yards, and two plays later, fellow sophomore Spencer Torkelson squeezed through a hole for another nine yards. When the offense sputtered to a stop at the Maria Carrillo 25, Matt Abramo booted what, for him, is a routine 42-yard field goal to give the Gauchos the game’s first points.

But, that was pretty much it for the Casa offense for the entire first half. Hampered by their own mistakes, the Gauchos earned only two more first downs for the remainder of the half.

Meanwhile, the Casey Longaker-inspired Casa defense was equally tough on the Maria Carrillo attack. “Casey’s a beast,” Herzog said of the senior linebacker. “He is the heart and soul of our team.” Defensively, he hurried, harassed and generally made life difficult for Netherda and Puma quarterback Walker Rotherham. Offensively, he carried the ball just five times - twice for touchdowns.

A pair of defensive backfield lapses helped Maria Carrillo march 65 yards for its first score midway through the second period. The drive was aided by a pass interference call and a 37-yard pass connection between Rotherham and Jordan Rosado. The completion took the Pumas to the Casa three-yard line and Netherda scored from there.

The turning point in the game came at the end of the first half, and was notable for what didn’t happen. Maria Carrillo didn’t score.

With just over 30 seconds left, a bad snap on a Casa punt attempt gave Maria Carrillo ownership at the Casa Grande 14 yard line. But the Casa Grande defense, helped by a holding call on the Pumas, and featuring a crucial Rotherham sack by Andrew Floerke and Nick Jensen, stopped the hopeful Pumas. A 29-yard field goal attempt rolled into the middle of the line and the Maria Carrillo lead remained 7-3 at the intermission.

The third quarter was a grimly played defensive struggle that featured only one notable play - a 32-yard pass hook up between Gaucho quarterback JJ Anderson and Joey Markam that came on the last play of the period and moved Casa from its own territory to the Maria Carrillo 29-yard line.

Another Anderson completion, this one to Brent Eger, moved the ball to the 10, and Longaker, behind a wall of blockers, took the ball home from there to give the lead to the Gauchos, 10-7, with Abramo’s PAT kick being automatic.

The two Anderson completions marked a transformation for Casa Grande’s junior quarterback, who had been high and wide with his pass attempts during a frustrating first half. He finished completing 13 of 18 passes for 72 yards.

“We just settled down with everyone doing their part,” Anderson said of the Casa Grande second half. “I was over thinking in the first half. In the second half I just started throwing the football.”

The Casa Grande defense gave the Gauchos good field position most of the second half, a detail that led to what would be the winning score when a bad Maria Carrillo punt put the Gauchos in business at the Puma 19-yard line just five minutes from the finish.

From there, it took only five plays for the Casa Grande front line of Tanner Shimek, Brendan Jackson, Julian Lopez, Peter Parrick and Greg Poteracke to push the Gauchos home. Longaker did the scoring honors from the five-yard line.

Even with a 17-7 lead, the Gauchos weren’t safe from the talented Pumas, who desperately fought back, overcoming a holding penalty and a sack by the omnipresent Longaker to go 77 yards to score on a 10-yard burst by Netherda that cut the Gaucho lead to 17-14.

The Puma drive, while impressive, proved fatal. It took more than two minutes to accomplish - race-car quick in most situations, but snail slow when faced with a two-score deficit and the clock ticking.

There were only 56 seconds left when the Pumas tried an onside kick. The pooch was smothered by the Gauchos, and all that was left were two quarterback kneels and plans for a Thanksgiving Day Casa Grande practice.