PREP FOOTBALL 2016: Casa Grande and Petaluma play on

Casa Grande opens playoffs at home; Petaluma goes to Encinal.|

Casa Grande High School’s wounded wonders and Petaluma’s strong and streaking Trojans begin their second seasons Friday night in the first round of the North Coast Section playoffs.

Casa Grande (4-6), the No. 8 seed in Division 2, has a home game against Redwood (8-2), the No. 9 seed. Petaluma (7-3) the No. 10 seed in Division 3, travels to Alameda to play No. 7 seed Encinal (8-2). Both games start at 7 p.m.

Casa at home

“I’m happy with our seeding,” said Casa Grande coach Trent Herzog. “We got a home game, which is what we wanted, and is most important.”

Although Casa Grande had a losing record during the regular season, the Gauchos were given the home game by virtue of having beaten San Marin, 24-22, a team that defeated Redwood, 35-28. Casa also played a tougher schedule than the Giants. Casa’s strength of schedule was the second toughest in the division, right behind No. 1 seed Campolindo.

That doesn’t mean that Redwood will be an easy opening opponent for the Gauchos. “They are a very good team,” Herzog said. They have a great running back, a big wide receiver, and they are well coached. They’re not real big up front, but they have scored a lot of points.”

Nick Calzaretta is the running back. The senior has gained 2,170 yards, averaging 218 a game, and rushing for 36 touchdowns. The Giants do like to run the football, but when they pass, Trevor Foehr is more than an adequate quarterback, completing 91 of 145 passes for 1,355 yards and 20 touchdowns. Fourteen of those scoring passes have gone to Alex Wilson, who has 43 catches for 786 yards on the season.

Casa Grande goes into the game with many players still hurting from an injury-plagued season.

The good news is that both senior quarterbacks, Frank Gawronski and Garret Buffo, will be available. Gawronswki has been nursing a sore arm, although he played the majority of the game last week against Santa Rosa, while Buffo left the Windsor game two weeks ago with concussion-like symptoms. He passed all protocols and played a quarter last week against Santa Rosa.

Herzog said both will play Friday night. “Who starts will depend on who looks best in practice this week, but both will play,” he said.

A player who probably won’t play is senior halfback/linebacker. Spencer Torkelson. He is suffering from a leg injury, but came off the bench in the fourth quarter last week to give the Gauchos an emotional spark in the win over Santa Rosa, throwing a halfback touchdown pass.

“He gave us a big lift last week, but we’re being really cautious with him,”Herzog said.

First-time foe

Petaluma’s Trojans will be meeting Encinal’s Jets for the first time when they go to Alameda Friday night.

Encinal waits with an 8-2 team that won the West Alameda County-Shoreline League championship with a 4-1 record.

Petaluma coach Rick Krist expects the Trojans to be in for a battle. “They are athletic and big. It is going to be a challenge,” he said. “They will be the best team we’ve faced since our pre-league.”

That saying quite a bit since Petaluma’s pre-league opponents included Division 2 playoff participant Windsor and Division 3 sixth-seeded Kennedy of Fremont

Encinal has a stingy defense that has given up just 85 points in 10 games this season, while scoring 389.

Krist said the key for Petaluma will be to eliminate mistakes.

“Our offensive line has improved a lot,” he explained. “We know what to expect. The key will be to execute.”

For Petaluma, executing means hanging onto the football and using a bevy of backs to grind out yardage behind its outstanding front line. Petaluma has used 13 different backs this season with Dominic Christobal gaining 623 yards, Connor Richardson 471, Jacob Rolistin 421 and quarterback Mark Wolbert 259.

Petaluma goes into the playoffs working on a six-game win streak, with four of those victories coming by shutout.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.