Maranatha has too much firepower for Santa Rosa, 49-34

Quarterback Daniel Marlow finds some room to run for Santa Rosa Academy. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

The Santa Rosa Academy football team lost its league match-up against Maranatha Friday night, 49-34 at home.

The Rangers had circled this game on their calendar from the beginning of the season, as Maranatha was the team that took them out of the CIF playoffs last year. But senior Wyatt Spykstra said that may have been what had them starting out a little slow.

“We kind of came out in what coach called ‘the fog,’” Spykstra said. “We were more nervous than we were ready to play.”

Those nerves showed in a 14-0 Minutemen lead at the start of the second quarter. At that point, they were outgaining the Rangers, 136-44 total yards.

After a forced punt from both teams on their next possessions, however, Santa Rosa got on the board with a quarterback sneak touchdown from Daniel Marlow.

Less than 20 seconds on the game clock had passed before Maranatha scored again, though. Then another forced Ranger punt and a five-play drive had them in the end zone one more time before halftime, with a Minutemen cushion of 28-6.

Head coach Perry Jones said the first half was not his team’s usual showing and it was his job at halftime to put them back to normal.

“I think in the first half it kind of got away [from us] and we tried to do too much,” Jones said. “It just came down to knowing our offense and running it the way it was designed.”

In spite of his usual numbers, Spykstra only put up 16 total yards in the first half, but came in running – literally -- for the third quarter. Thanks to an 18-yard touchdown from Spykstra and a Marlow run in for the two-point conversion, the Rangers were on the board within about a minute of second-half play.

The next Maranatha drive was stopped by a big-time defensive performance from the Ranger defense -- most notably a sack on the first down from Kaden Maxwell-Garcia on first down.

“We were down on ourselves and trying to get back at it and I just read it right,” said Maxwell-Garcia of the mood before his sack. “That felt like a big momentum shift for us.”

Sy Reed also put up coverage on the next two plays to force a punt out of the Minutemen without any gained yards on the drive, giving the Rangers a chance to close the gap on the board. Marlow and Spykstra paired up to do just that with a six-play drive that had them scoring on a QB sneak, putting them within one possession of tying the game.

But Miles O’Malley from Maranatha took the ball on the first play after the kickoff all the way into the end zone, a place he found all-too-comfortable -- evidenced in his five total touchdowns on the night.

Santa Rosa answered that with another Spykstra touchdown, and even answered the following Minutemen touchdown with another one of their own, but the gap in the score that was established in the first half proved to be just too far for them to overcome.

The game ended with a final turnover on downs for the Rangers and the Minutemen running out the clock with their 49-34 victory on the board.

This loss puts the Rangers at a 5-3 overall record on the season and a 3-1 league record, but that’s not all this game brings to the team.

“It comes down to life lessons for us,” said Jones of his team’s emotions at the end of the game. “I want them to know that sometimes in life they will put in everything they’re got and work as hard as they should but still come up short sometimes.”

But, Jones said, the real test will come next week.

“We have to see if they’ll come back from this and work just as hard as they did in this game where they truly wanted it,” Jones said. “That’s when it will really show if they’re learning what we want them to learn.”

That next match-up is an away game at Whittier Christian Friday at 7 p.m. It is the second-to-last game of their regular season schedule.

Santa Rosa Academy defender Connor Peterson takes down an opposing player. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Jack Warren races for yardage in Santa Rosa Academy's game Friday night. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Quarterback Daniel Marlow pushes his way toward a touchdown. (Photo by Rick Rowell)