When it was finally over, the Gauchos held the Egg Bowl trophy

The famous Roman philosopher Lawrence Berra once remarked, “It’s not over until it’s over.”

Casa Grande High School’s Gaucho football team proved Saturday afternoon that sometimes it is not over when it’s over - or at least appears to be over - beating Petaluma’s Trojans, 37-36, in one of the most exciting Egg Bowl encounters in the rivalry game’s 39-year history.

The game certainly seemed over when Petaluma culminated a methodical 80-yard march with a 2-yard burrowing touchdown push by Colton Prieto and a follow-up conversion pass to Nick Ayers to take a 36-29 lead with just one minute and one second left in what was, to that point, an already epic battle.

Somebody forgot to tell the Gauchos the game was over. Battling both the Trojan defense and the relentless clock on Petaluma’s Steve Ellison Field, the Gauchos improbably swept 72 yards on key runs by quarterback Jadon Bosarge and a culminating 33-yard touchdown pass from the quarterback to wide receiver Carson Kerrigan, who made a tumbling catch in the end zone with 20 seconds to spare.

The emotion and intensity that had shrouded Petaluma’s field since the opening kickoff wasn’t over, because the 6-point touchdown still left the Gauchos a point shy of the Egg Bowl trophy, trailing, 36-35.

The Gaucho choice was really no choice. They could go with a high-percentage, game-tying conversion kick, or try to run for a much more problematic game-winning 2-point conversion.

It was a no-brainer decision for Casa coach Denis Brunk and his players.

The give for the 2-point try was to Jordan Gramajo, who rode an unstoppable line surge into the end zone for two of the biggest points ever scored by a Casa Grande High School football team.

Afterward, Brunk admitted that he ordered the Gauchos to allow Petaluma to score once the Trojans’ final drive had reached the 2-yard line.

“We didn’t just lay down, we tried to strip the ball, but I knew we could score if we had enough time. We needed that minute,” he explained.

The coach said the touchdown pass that set up the winning conversion was a play the Gauchos had run several times this season. “It was a planned play. We run it all the time,” he said.

Bosarge said the Gauchos were confident even as they faced what might have been the final minute in their season. “We didn’t doubt,” he said. “We were quiet on the sideline. I just told the receivers to be sure to get out of bounds.”

As it turned out, it was Bosarge himself who managed to get out of bounds, three times running for good yardage as the Gauchos raced down field. “I trusted my instincts,” he said.

Then came the pass, the conversion run and the real end.

The finish somewhat obscured a game that was spirit-drenched from both sides of Ellison Field from kickoff to conclusion. Right up until the final buzzer, the game was a teeter-totter tussle that had high points and low for both sides as they struggled through 48 minutes of total bedlam.

Petaluma’s dominating ground game gave the Trojans a 14-0 lead on touchdown runs by Derrick Pomi and Prieto as Casa Grande’s offense suffered through early setbacks.

Bosarge’s first pass of the game was swiped by Petaluma’s Garrett Freitas and six plays and 60 yards later, Pomi was in the end zone from a yard out for the game’s first touchdown.

Petaluma played the first period with junior Jack Hartman at the controls of its option offense as senior starter Cole Powers sat out trying to recover from an illness that had plagued him all week.

Casa Grande pushed right back, but then was stopped short of its objective when officials ruled that Matt Herrera was a hand’s-length short of the goal on a fourth-and-1 try.

In the second quarter, a punt that might have pinned Petaluma deep in its own territory was partially blocked, and the Trojans took advantage of a 56-yard field to scored on a 14-yard run by Prieto for a 14-0 lead with Powers back at quarterback.

But, even as the Trojan fans screamed in satisfaction, the game path suddenly twisted toward the Gaucho side of the field.

Help by two penalties - one for whomping Bosarge after the whistle and one for a pass interference - the Gauchos went 45 yards in just 46 seconds to score on an 11-yard Bosarge-to-Nate Busse pass.

Instead of being in charge by two touchdowns at the intermission, the Trojans were hanging on to a seven-point lead and momentum was sitting on the Casa bench.

The west side really got wild in the second half.

Given a short field when a Casa Grande onside kickoff backfired, and bouyed by a 28-yard run by Prieto, Petaluma went 55 yards for a 2-yard Derrick Pomi touchdown and a 21-7 lead.

Again, Casa Grande rallied back, scoring on a 1-yard plunge by Gramajo after his 19-yard scamper on a swing pass from Bosarge set up the touchdown.

Back and forth it went through the longest and loudest 12 minutes of the season.

Freitas sliced up the middle for a 9-yard Trojan touchdown and Johnson answered right back on a sparkling 45-yard run to count country.

In a game where every series was either big, bigger or biggest, one of the bigger ones came almost immediately following Johnson’s burst when Petaluma tried a bit of trickery with a reverse that was fumbled and pounced on by Casa Grande’s Matthew Murphy.

“That was my fault,” Petaluma head coach Rick Krist said later. “I called the wrong play. I had a bad feeling about it as soon as I called it.”

Starting at the Petaluma 36-yard line, it took the Gauchos just seven plays to score on an 11-yard run by Bosarge. In a preview of the climax to come, the Gauchos battled Gramajo into the end zone for a 2-point conversion and a 29-28 lead. With seven minutes left, Casa Grande had its first lead of the game.

Trailing for the first time, the Trojans refused to panic, and did what they do best, pushing down field on an 80-yard march.

The drive was salvaged by a crucial fourth-down swing pass from Powers to Freitas that covered 11 yards when Petaluma needed eight.

Prieto into the end zone and the 2-point conversion made it a 36-29 game.

“That was a great drive,” said Krist. “It was our best drive of the season.”

With 1:01 blinking on the scoreboard, the frenzied Petaluma fans thought it was over.

They were wrong.

Back came the Gauchos, down went the Trojans and it was the Casa Grande fans mobbing the field when it was really over.

“That was crazy,” said Bosarge, who gave full credit to his offensive line. “They played great. It was their best week of practice and they played like they practiced.”

Casa senior Jack Green, who had sparked the Gauchos all season with his unsung play on both sides of scrimmage as offensive lineman and linebacker, echoed the feelings of his teammates.

“That felt so good to come back and win,” Green said. “We knew we needed to win to make the playoffs.”

“What a game. It was just a matter of who had the ball at the end,” observed Brunk.

“We made too many silly mistakes,” noted Krist. “It was a great game, but in the second half we couldn’t stop the run.”

Led by workhorse Prieto, who carried 30 times for 175 yards, Petaluma out rushed Casa 370 yards to 233.

Bosarge gave Casa Grande a passing advantage, completing 14 of 22 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Powers was 6-of-6 for 64 yards for the Trojans, while Hartman, in his quarter, completed 1-of-2 throws for 11 yards.

Petaluma finished with 457 total yards to 373 for Casa Grande.

Sprinkled throughout what was primarily an offensive game were outstanding defensive efforts from both sides.

Among the more notable defenders for Petaluma were Ayers, Connor Pedersen, Hartman and Mariano Jaramillo. Casa Grande received strong efforts from Gramajo, Quinten Lopez, Johnson, Josh Garcia and Matthew Murphy, among others.