By: Joe Quinn
–Special to the Valley News
–The Santa Rosa Academy Rangers traveled to Nuevo Friday, Oct. 10, to take on the Knights of Nuview Bridge in a South Valley conference game. The Knights sit atop the Conference standings and their play during Week Seven showed they belong there.
Nuview moved the ball almost at will with long passes, significant ground gains and even on special teams. Their speed in the passing game was obvious as they continually beat the Rangers secondary for long gains off the strong arm of their QB. Things looked fairly even early in the first quarter, even after the Knights struck first. On only their third play from scrimmage, Nuview crossed the goal line to take the lead 7-0. However, the Rangers answered quickly on a 30-yard keeper by Adam Pinard to the left side. The point after failed for Santa Rosa and the Knights led at that point 7-6.
From there on though, it was mostly all Nuview Bridge as with 10 minutes remaining in the half, they were up 28-7. The Knights scored their final TD of the second quarter on a 30-yard pass on the first play, after recovering a Ranger fumble deep in their own territory. The Rangers stayed in the game and answered as the quarter wound down. With three minutes left in the half they moved the ball to inside the Knights five from where Daniel Gonzalez took it in up the middle putting the Rangers back in the mix, but barely so, at 28-13.
From there, it would have been nice to go into halftime and regroup, but the Knights moved the ball quickly, scoring again with less than a minute remaining. With the successful two-point conversion the teams went to the locker room with the score at 36-13. The Knights added touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters and the Rangers had no answer as the game closed with a final score of 48-13.
The game was expected to be a lot closer given that both teams had scored at will against common opponent St. Jeanne de Lestonnac, the Knights winning 56-0 and the Rangers 53-7. Further, the Rangers entered the game close. The staff would not make excuses, but the Rangers were significantly disadvantaged by injuries in the last week. Five starters were missing from the Week Seven game, including key performers from last week’s game, Luke Adams (lineman) and WR Justin York. Others not playing were Cameron Quesada (RB, LB) and WR Jeff Sims. Center Eli Aguilar and two other players, whose names could not be verified at the time of this article going to print, also were not available.
Santa Rosa will be home in Week Eight taking on second place Hamilton High of Anza. The Bobcats are 2-0 in league and 3-3 on the season coming off last week’s victory over St. Jeanne, 62-15. Santa Rosa is now 3-3 on the season and 2-1 in League and is hoping they can get their injured Rangers back early this week as they continue in the hard part of league play.
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