PREP FOOTBALL 2016: Wild overtime win for injury-depleted Gauchos

Battered and bruised Gauchos rally to beat Maria Carrillo in overtime.|

Never has something that started so ugly ended with such beauty.

The Casa Grande High School football team was – simply put – bad, ugly and hurt for the first three quarters of its homecoming game against Maria Carrillo Friday night. The Gauchos started the game with three key backfield players out and lost a fourth in the second period. Two starting offensive linemen left the game before halftime with injuries.

Meanwhile, Maria Carrillo took advantage of the Casa woes to build a 21-7 halftime lead that stretched to 30-7 by the end of the third quarter.

Then amazingly, the battered and bruised Gauchos, led by the suddenly sun-hot passing of quarterback Garrett Buffo, streaked back into the game, tied the contest at the end of regulation and won in overtime, 36-33.

The victory kept alive Casa Grande’s hopes for a North Coast Section playoff, improving its overall record to 2-5 and giving it a North Bay League win that made it 1-3 with three games to play. A sweep of those games would give it a better than a .500 record in league, two wins would give it a break-even mark against Division 2 foes, with either criteria making it playoff eligible.

Both those possibilities seemed pointless to contemplate for three quarters Friday as the battle-battered Gauchos dug a deep hole against the fired-up Pumas.

Casa began the game with starting running back Spencer Torkelson on crutches and starting quarterback Frank Gawronski nursing a sore arm that would limit him to punting duties. Another key running back, Jack Leonetti, was also on crutches as was linebacker Jance Offermann. Before the first half had finished, another Casa back, Sawyer Johnson, had gone down and out. Despite the hurts, the Gauchos started quickly. On their second play from scrimmage, quarterback Buffo hooked up with speedster Dulio Froes for a 55-yard pass connection and a quick 7-0 lead.

That was pretty much the only highlight of the first half for the Gauchos. The defense played pretty well, but a pair of late-half interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, helped Maria Carrillo lead at the intermission, 21-7.

It didn’t get much better for Gaucho fans after they celebrated Madison Kenyon’s coronation as homecoming queen at halftime.

Two bad fourth-down snaps plagued the Gauchos in the third quarter. One led to a touchdown and the other provided two points when Casa punter Gawronski deliberately kicked the bouncing ball out of the back of his own end zone for a two-point safety.

At the end of the third quarter, Maria Carrillo led, 30-7, but the game was only now about to begin.

It started with Alex Azanon recovering a fumble at the Mario Carrillo 43-yard line. Two plays later, Buffo gave a preview of coming attractions by connecting with Josh Grayson for a 42-yard touchdown.

On Casa’s next possession, Buffo passed his team 50 yards with two big connections to Isaiah Cappelen and a 4-yard TD hit to Trevor Naugle. A two-point conversion attempt failed when the ball was batted away from Naugle at the last second, leaving the score 30-20 with 5:44 left.

By this time, Mighty Mo was wearing a Casa uniform, and fans were going from excited to slightly berserk, a condition that intensified when the Gauchos apparently recovered an onside kick. However, the officials ruled that the kick had not traveled the required 10 yards, and awarded possession to Maria Carrillo.

No problem.

The aroused Gauchos allowed the Pumas the courtesy of three plays and a punt and then came storming right back. Buffo threw what, by now, was a rare incompletion, but then hit four in a row, the last going 36 yards to Froes for a touchdown. Keefer’s accurate kick made it a 3-point game (30-27) with 3:19 left.

Casa caught a break on the ensuing kickoff when a long Maria Carrillo return was negated by a holding call that pushed the Pumas back to their own 5-yard line.

Again, the Gaucho defense sent tacklers all over the Pumas and forced a punt.

There were 2 minutes and 6 seconds left in the bedlam that was now the Casa stadium when the Gauchos took over.

Alternating between completing passes and spiking the ball to stop the clock, Buffo moved the Gauchos goal-ward. They didn’t quite make it all the way, but they got close enough for Brandon Keefer, the calmest man in the place, to kick a game-tying 28-yard field goal.

The kick extended the already long game into overtime.

Each team was given one set of downs to score from the 10-yard line.

The crutch-aided Torkelson made his contribution to the Casa cause by winning the overtime coin toss and choosing to allow Maria Carrillo to have the ball first. That meant when the Gauchos got their turn, they would know what they had to do.

What they had to do, once they got the football, was to score a field goal to tie or a touchdown to win after they held the Pumas to a field goal in their try.

A pass-interference penalty on an incomplete third-down pass gave Maria Carrillo an extra try at a touchdown, but Froes blanketed the Maria Carrillo receiver and a pass was overthrown, forcing the Pumas to settle for a 21-yard field goal.

After the intensity had built to a crescendo, it all ended with eye-blinking abruptness when Buffo smacked Naugle in the middle with a 10-yard pass and the senior didn’t miss.

“This was a total team effort,” said Casa head coach Trent Herzog. “So many kids stepped up. Everybody contributed. I’ve coached 22 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“The defense for the last 20 minutes was awesome and the offensive line really stepped up.”

They also saw what everybody else saw. “Buffo was the spark,” he said. “He just needed to get his confidence up.”

“The coaches told me to relax and just go out and have fun,” Buffo said. “Our offensive line did a great job.”

When all the ups and downs had been added up, Buffo had an all-around outstanding game, completing 14 of 38 passes for 274 yards and five touchdowns with the one costly interception.

Casa Grande’s running back by committee worked for 141 yards with Morarity gaining 18, Buffo 20, Johnson 24, Brandon Coda 41 and Brian Kolodin 38. Naugle grabbed seven passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns, while big-play Froes gained 113 yards and scored two touchdowns on his three catches.

Casa Grande’s total-team defense was reflected by 17 players being credited with tackles with linebacker Travis leading the way with 11, many of them at various crucial points in a game of crucial points. Froes was credited with nine tackles, Mathew Kubes eight, Kolodin six and Billy Brown five.

Maria Carrillo won the junior varsity game, 42-28.

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