Trojan miracle whistled away

Referees nullify fumble return for potential Petaluma score in NCS Division 3 playoff loss|

A potential Petaluma miracle was whistled into oblivion Saturday night when the striped-shirted oligarchy ruled that what might have been a tying Trojan touchdown was nullified by an inadvertent whistle.

The decision, coming in the final two minutes of the game, allowed Rancho Cotate to hold on to a 35-28 win over Petaluma in the second round of the North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs.

With Rancho’s Cougars leading by what would be the final seven-point victory margin, the Ranch was driving and chewing up valuable clock blinks in the process as the game headed into its final two minutes. Petaluma needed a miracle to stop the drive, gain possession and drive practically the length of the field.

The miracle happened, or appeared to happen.

Rancho Cotate’s elusive running back Moziah Ward took a handoff from quarterback Gunner Meffered and, as he had done all night, zig, zagged and zipped through Trojan defenders. As the elusive back was finally hit inside the Petaluma 20-yard line, the ball was stripped from his possession by John Lautner and scooped up by Trojan speedster Luke Wheless, who zoomed toward the opposite end zone, lugging with him what looked like a sure touchdown and a chance for Petaluma to either tie with a one-point PAT or win with a two-point conversion.

Somewhere between the hit, the fumble and Wheless’ dash, the line judge had blown his whistle, although Ward had clearly fumbled before being brought down.

The result was confusion, claims, counter-claims, screams, denials and general chaos.

The officials huddled, considered the predicament and ruled, “inadvertent whistle.”

By rule, that meant the play never happened, although the large gathering of Petaluma fans had a hard time believing what they had just seen was a mirage.

The Cougars were given a do-over, and were eventually able to gain a first down and run out the clock for the second frustrating loss in three weeks for the Trojans on the Rancho Cotate field.

Just two weeks earlier, they had been beaten for the Sonoma County League championship on the same synthetic turf by Analy on a last-second touchdown pass. Video later showed the Analy receiver down on about the 2-yard line.

Saturday’s play that wasn’t overshadowed a magnificent battle that pitted Rancho Cotate’s big-play offense against Petaluma’s methodically unstoppable ground game.

Petaluma played with almost all its key offensive weapons battered and gimping, but still refused to concede to the No. 3-seeded Cougars, who, in turn kept running big play after big play at the Trojans.

“I am very proud of my team,” said Petaluma coach Rick Krist. “This is the gutsiest team I’ve ever coached.”

Petaluma ran 79 plays to just 36 for the Cougars and piled up 458 yards (413 rushing) to 343 for its opponents.

Petaluma quarterback Brenden White, despite playing with a variety of hurts, gutted his way to 203 yards and a touchdown in another spectacular effort that is becoming routine for him. Fullback Lucas Dentoni, the object of an intense manhunt by Rancho Cotate defenders the entire game, ran for 55 yards and a school record-breaking touchdown. Dentoni finished with 24 touchdowns, one more than Ricky Sims scored in 2010.

Wheless, zipping down the field when he wasn’t limping on the sidelines, ran for 85 yards, and Connor Richardson, pressed into service because of the multitude of Trojan hurts, added 69 yards and scored a big touchdown.

The loss ends the Petaluma season at 8-4, while Rancho Cotate, now 9-3, moves on to play Analy in a semifinal matchup the Trojans had desperately craved for their own - a place it would have taken a miracle to secure for them. It was a miracle that happened, but just as quickly didn’t happen.

White began his final football game for Petaluma in spectacular fashion, breaking off a 71-yard run in the Trojans’ first possession. The quarterback didn’t quite get into the end zone, pulled down at the 16-yard line. It was the biggest play in a 98-yard Trojan march that began at their 2-yard line and ended with Dentoni in the end zone from the Rancho Cotate two with his record-breaking touchdown. A fumbled snap cost the Trojans on the conversion try, leaving them in front, 6-0.

Even with White’s big run, it took Petaluma seven plays and four minutes to record its touchdown. Rancho Cotate responded in two plays and 30 seconds. On the Cougars’ first touchdown following the Petaluma kickoff, Ward did his catch-me-if-you-can thing for 54 yards to set up a first and goal at the Trojan four. Appropriately, he carried in from there. Mefferd’s kick gave the Cougars a 7-6 lead.

That advantage quickly grew to 14-6 when Chris Taylor-Yamanoha turnd a short pass into a 47-yard touchdown, and Mefferd added the PAT.

When Danny Shelton zoomed 67 yards for a score before the end of round one to put the Cougars up-by two touchdowns, it looked like a long night for the Trojans. As it turned out, it was a long night, but not because they were over matched.

Down, 21-6, Petaluma held to a steady course, methodically punching down field behind the dedicated blocking of Zane Overton, William O’Neill, Ben Upton, Joe Beccera, Travis Plank and Robert Krist.

First came a 75-yard push culminating in a 25-yard scoring pass to Harrison Royal.

After Rancho Cotate answered on a 31-yard scoring scamper by Ward, Petaluma fashioned a masterful 70-yard drive, that required three third-down conversions and chewed up almost eight minutes of clock time. White culminated things with a five-yard run that made the halftime tally 28-18 with the Ranch leading, but the Trojans confident.

It was more of Petaluma’s smash-mouth pounding as the second half shivered into existence, but the Trojans’s 56-yard march stalled and Isaiah Blomgren’s 37-yard field goal attempt was tipped by a Rancho Cotate rusher and fluttered just short.

The Petaluma defense, sparked by a sack of Mefferd by Lautner forced the Cougar offense off the field on just three plays and a punt. It was to be the only Ranch offense of the third quarter.

Petaluma hogged possession for the final 5 1/2 minutes of the period, going 67 yards, helped by a 30-yard scamper by Wheless, to give Blogren another chance at a field goal. This time he was right on with a 30-yarder, and it was a one-score game, with the Cougars on top, 28-21.

The fourth period was a match of body blows as both sides overcame physical exhaustion and body battering to battle it out to the finish on pure will.

Rancho Cotate struck a telling blow when Shelton ran through Trojan tackers for a 38-yard touchdown to re-establish a two-score lead (35-21).

Petaluma drew close again on a brilliantly executed draw play that gave Richardson a chance to run 37 yards into the limelight. Blomgren’s kick put the count at 35-28.

As time flashed away in the final quarter, neither offense, staggering from the pace and pounding of the game, could strike.

Petaluma punted away its last possession with 5:17 left, and Rancho Cotate, in the face of a determined Petaluma defense, battled as much for time killing as scoring opportunity.

Petaluma snatched at the ball on every Cougar carry, hoping for a miracle.

It happened, but then, just as quickly, it didn’t happen and the Trojan season was finished.

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