Prep football: Maria Carrillo claims shootout win over Ukiah with late touchdown

Posted on Author Joan Tabb

This post was originally published on this site.

In a game that featured over 1,000 combined total yards and six 65-yard-plus touchdowns, Maria Carrillo emerged victorious over Ukiah, 50-43, in an instant classic Friday night in east Santa Rosa.

Maria Carrillo scored a go-ahead touchdown with 1:04 left on the clock on a 38-yard trick play and then sealed the win, its fifth in a row and first over Ukiah since 2015, with a strip sack at midfield.

The Pumas are now in sole control of first place in the Redwood Empire Conference Bay division with a huge title-deciding matchup looming next week against St. Vincent. Maria Carrillo has never won a league title in football in program history.

How it happened

Maria Carrillo (7-2, 4-0 REC-Bay) got out to as fast a start as possible, taking a 14-0 lead in their first four offensive plays. Cooper Bluestone hit Estefan Ramirez for a 68-yard touchdown on the Pumas’ third play of the game, then, after getting the ball back on an interception from lineman Finn Baker-Inman, Andrew Godfrey found a seam up the middle and took off for a 71-yard touchdown run on the very first play of their next drive.

The Pumas then made it 21-0 on their third possession, a nine-play, 57-yard scoring drive capped by an eight-yard rush from Ramirez.

Ukiah (5-4, 3-1) got on the board on the final play of the first quarter on a 39-yard pass from Beau David to Malachi Denington to make it 21-7 heading to the second. The Wildcats got a stop and then scored again, marching down the field with a seven-play, 67-yard scoring drive that ended with a nine-yard rush from Chris Thompson.

But in what became a recurring theme as the night wore on, Maria Carrillo answered in quick succession. Ryan Braga took the first play of their next drive 72 yards to the house to go back up two scores at 28-14. That’s where the score stood at halftime after the Pumas got a big defensive stop at their own 17.

Both defenses shored up after the intermission. The Wildcats were forced to punt on their first two possessions of the third quarter after four consecutive sacks from the Pumas. However, Carrillo came away empty from their two possessions and Ukiah struck again.

David found Zach Martinez for a quick pass and Martinez then shed two tacklers and broke free for a 75-yard catch-and-run score that pulled the Wildcats back within a touchdown at 28-20.

But again, Carrillo responded immediately. Godfrey broke free on the Pumas’ first play of their next possession for a 74-yard touchdown to make it 35-20 with 1:58 left in the third, which is where the score stood heading to the fourth.

Ukiah then strung together a long drive, highlighted by a 42-yard scramble by David that got the Wildcats deep into Carrillo territory. David finished the scoring drive with a two-yard keeper on the first play of the fourth quarter, and Ukiah converted the two-point try to make it 35-28.

Maria Carrillo then muffed the ensuing kickoff return and Ukiah recovered at the Pumas’ 17, but Ukiah fumbled it right back on its first play. Then, for the fourth time in the game, Carrillo scored on its first play of a drive, Braga again breaking free — this time for a 79-yard touchdown to make it 42-28 with 11:37 left in the fourth.

Ukiah came back with a nine-play, 43-yard scoring drive, capped by a three-yard keeper from Thompson to again cut it to a one-score game at 42-35 with 8:33 left.

Dareon Dorsey then ended Carrillo’s next drive with an interception and Ukiah turned the takeaway into points. David fought his way into the end zone from 14 yards out and converted the two-point try himself to give Ukiah its first lead of the game at 43-42 with 3:50 to play.

Carrillo started its game-winning drive at its 26-yard line and kept the possession alive with a 16-yard trick play pass from Godfrey to Josh Bade to convert a key third down. Bade was the hero again in the go-ahead score, another trick play cooked up by head coach Jay Higgins.

Bade faked subbing out of the game and stood with his arms folded completely uncovered near the Carrillo sideline. He broke into a sprint as the ball was snapped and, completely wide open, hauled in a perfectly thrown pass from Bluestone for a 38-yard touchdown to put the Pumas back on top 50-43 after a successful two-point try with 1:04 remaining.

Ukiah was able to get to midfield, but Felipe Concepcion put an end to the final drive by stripping the ball from David’s hands. It was recovered by Carrillo’s Tysen Norlund with 28 seconds left.

Maria Carrillo finished with a season-high 579 total yards, 407 rushing and 172 passing. Braga rushed for 200 yards on nine carries with two scores, Godfrey ran for 172 yards on 14 carries with two scores and Estefan Ramirez had 35 rushing yards on 14 carries with a touchdown and had a 68-yard receiving score.

Bluestone finished 5-of-9 passing for 172 yards with two scores and a pick.

For Ukiah, which amassed 475 total yards, David passed for 357 on 22-of-34 attempts with two touchdowns and a pick and rushed for 85 yards with two scores. Dorsey led the way receiving with 132 yards on eight catches, Denington had 90 receiving yards on seven catches with a score and Zach Martinez had a touchdown reception on two catches for 79 yards. Thompson also had two rushing scores on eight carries for 33 yards.

Key plays

Bade’s trick-play touchdown takes the cake in a wild, wild game. That reception, and his 16-yard completion on third down to extend the drive, were his only two offensive touches of the game, but they couldn’t have come at bigger moments.

Quotable

“Difficult circumstances allow you to find out who you are and our guys have proven to be incredibly poised and they respond to the moment. I couldn’t be more proud of our team.” – Higgins

“I was frustrated that we had a couple scoring opportunities that we didn’t finish. We had two where we got down into the red zone and we had great position and we stumbled. Whenever the game started getting tight I was reflecting on those, thinking, ‘Man, it would have been nice to punch those in.’ But we can’t live in the past, gotta play the game as it is and gotta focus on the next play.” – Higgins

“Early, we came out, and that was probably the thing we were harping on most all week: You win a big game, you feel good about yourself, it’s very easy to take compliments and forget why you got to where you’re at. Early I thought that was kind of why we played tentative, not wanting to lose. That being said, this was like watching the years of playing Maria Carrillo. I’ve only lost to them once, back in 2005. This was like watching all those games. Like, ‘Oh, there’s Gut from 2008. ‘Oh shoot, was that the tackle wrap play that we saw in 2011?’ It was like going through the generations of my coaching career. That was crazy, they went all out. So, you’re proud of them as a coaching staff. The thing I’ll say about our kids is that after the first part of the game where we were complacent, they played super hard. But with that, it’s hard to play super hard and smart. So you’re fighting back and clawing back. What I take away from that game is we have great kids and credit to the Carrillo coaching staff. 
 This is a great lesson for our kids.” – Ukiah head coach Paul Cronin

“Everything. I would be so glad to be able to bring the first one home and do it for this community.” – Concepcion on what winning Maria Carrillo’s first league title would mean

“We had no doubt. This whole year we’ve had no doubt. Since Milpitas, we’ve been down in games and coming back since then. We just have no doubt in ourselves that we can’t come back or are ever out of a game.” – Bluestone

Up next

Maria Carrillo will play Saturday at St. Vincent (8-1, 3-1) for the REC-Bay title. A win would seal it outright, while a loss could end the league race in a three-way tie. That’s if Ukiah beats Analy (6-3, 2-2) in the regular-season finale next week.