Santa Rosa wraps up playoff berth with 24-14 victory

Kai Loquet races down the sideline on his way to a touchdown run for Santa Rosa Academy Friday night.

Story and photos by Joe Quinn, Correspondent

With a 24-14 victory over Temecula Prep Friday, the Santa Rosa Academy football team took third place in the Southwest League behind Cornerstone of Wildomar and California Military Institute of Perris. That moves them into the CIF Southern Section Division 14 playoffs next week against an opponent to be announced on Sunday.

Earlier in the season, the Rangers played Cornerstone close, losing by six but scoring 30 points in the effort. They lost last week to CMI while playing what seemed a flat game. The victory this week over Temecula Prep saw them retain the Liberty Trophy, emblematic of the annual game between these two rivals.

Santa Rosa (4-6 overall) played tough-nosed football on both sides of the ball. The first quarter saw the Rangers taking the lead as Tim Marlow and Kai Loquet scored TD's on the ground. Loquet scored on a beautifully executed long run down the right side, racing past his opponents, and Marlow took his in from the 8-yard line up the middle. Marlow converted on both TD's as the Rangers took the lead 16-0 and never relinquished it.

The large Ranger crowd got into the game and like the Ranger squad only became subdued a bit in the third quarter. The Ranger defense controlled the line of scrimmage through the four quarters with few exceptions as Roman Wombler, Charles Schroeder, Joshua Zaballa and Daniel Heiner and the front seven kept forcing the Patriots to three and out.

Good deep coverage by the secondary also shut down the Patriots passing attack with limited exceptions. In the first half alone, the Patriots were forced to punt on three occasions. On one of those deep punts, the Ranger player fumbled the reception and the Patriots recovered deep in Ranger territory. Fortunately for the Rangers, Temecula was called for holding and they punted again from deeper in their own territory.

The Ranger special teams were reliable all night as well. With 34 seconds left in the 1st half, Kaitlyn Restrepo's kickoff had the Patriots starting at their own 2-yard line and not able to move the ball with limited time available.

The Ranger defense was beaten badly on the first Temecula TD, however. The Patriots executed a double reverse pass with the receiver uncovered in the end zone. That score with a successful 2-point conversion brought them within a TD of the Rangers at 16-8.

The Temecula Prep successful execution early in the third quarter, usually a sign of good coaching halftime adjustments, was not enough though as Santa Rosa regained their footing and kept the pressure on the Patriot offense.

The Patriots did score again in the third quarter but failed on the 2-point conversion attempt. But they were now within reach of the Rangers at 16-14. However, that would be all they had for the game and the Rangers would score again with Marlow taking it through the left side and outrunning the Patriot defense in the open field.

With the successful 2-point conversion, they took a commanding lead and the game ended with the Rangers stopping Temecula on downs deep in Patriots territory and then taking a knee for the last minute on the Patriot 18.

Santa Rosa Academy players pose with the Liberty Trophy, which they held onto by winning the rivalry game.

Santa Rosa Academy's Cameron Quesada recovers a Temecula Prep fumble during Friday night's game.