Prep football roundup: Rancho Cotate bounces back, St. Vincent routs Balboa

The Cougars bounced back from last week’s heartbreaking loss to beat Sacramento 48-34 on Saturday, behind another huge offensive game from senior quarterback Jacob Pruitt — who recorded six touchdowns, three rushing and three passing, with nearly 400 yards of offense.

Rancho Cotate (2-1) head coach Gehrig Hotaling didn’t have exact stats but estimated Pruitt ran for around 200 yards and passed for 180.

“Tough environment with the heat,” Hotaling said. “Proud of how the kids played, they played hard. We improved in a lot of areas we were struggling in the first two games, but our run game was alive and the pass game came alive for the first time. We were pretty balanced today.”

Sacramento (0-4) took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter before the visiting Cougars rattled off 28 straight points to take a 28-12 lead into halftime.

Both teams traded touchdowns in the third before the Cougars pulled away in the fourth. Pruitt threw his third and final touchdown of the game, a short completion to Gio Ortiz, to make it 48-28 with 3:30 to play before Tyler Schach got a game-sealing interception on Sacramento’s following drive.

The Dragons had kept the game within striking distance for most of the fourth and scored one final touchdown as time expired.

“That’s two games in a row where you think you put a team away late and you don’t,” Hotaling said. “That’s a sign of our youth, playing four sophomores heavily and a lot of juniors. With the experience, down the road this will help us when we get to league.”

Gio Martinez had two touchdown catches and Potu Hale ran for over 100 yards with a touchdown.

Rancho Cotate returns home next week to host Freedom-Oakley (0-3).

St. Vincent 30, Balboa-San Francisco 7

It was another defensive clinic for the Mustangs as they move to 3-0 on the season.

Balboa (0-1) found the end zone on its first drive but would not score again for the rest of the day.

“They came out in an offense we weren’t expecting,” St. Vincent head coach Trent Herzog said. “They went right down our throats. Then we made the adjustments, put in a defense we’ve never practiced, but the kids listened and trusted what the coaches told them to do. We played great defense from there on out.”

The Mustangs responded with three touchdowns on their next three drives to take a 20-7 lead after the first quarter. The score remained 20-7 until St. Vincent added a touchdown early in the fourth and a field goal late.

Sophomore quarterback Gabe Casanovas completed 16-of-26 passes for 197 yards with three touchdowns. Jack Davis led the receiving core with six catches for 99 yards with a touchdown and Tye Nickens added a pair of touchdown receptions on six catches for 64 yards.

Nico Antonini had a great defensive showing with eight tackles, one for loss, and a fumble recovery he returned for a touchdown.

Rob Rooks also added five tackles with two for loss and Liam Daly had five tackles and a fumble recovery.

The Mustangs entered the game without Malcom Rooks (hamstring) and Brett Ghisletta (shoulder) due to injury and saw three more key players go down Saturday.

Jack Olyphant and Dylan Brown both exited the game with concussions and lineman CJ Perez suffered a shoulder injury.

“The bye is coming at a great time for us,” Herzog said.

St. Vincent is off next week. Next up is an away matchup Sept. 22 at Montgomery.

Santa Rosa 19, Archie Williams 8

The Panthers got their first win of the year at home Friday night behind stout defense and two big field goals from junior Damian Gaona.

Gaona hit both attempts from 26 yards out. The first gave Santa Rosa (1-2) a 16-0 lead late in the third and his second came in the closing minutes of the fourth to help secure the win. His second make made it 19-8 with under five minutes left.

“Kicked two field goals last night and I think that brings it up to three in the four years I’ve been here,” Santa Rosa head coach Roy Keegan noted.

“It was nice to put everything together finally,” he added. “We weren’t spectacular in any phase of it — well, actually our kicking was the best part of it. Damian also had a punt inside the 10, had two touchbacks and hit those two field goals.”

The Panthers jumped out to a 13-0 lead at halftime. Talan Patrick had a three-yard touchdown run in the first quarter before quarterback Nolan Bankston found Cooper Lee for a 20-yard touchdown pass just before the break. Bankston went 11-for-16 passing for 141 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions and Lee also added a sack on defense.

The Peregrine Falcons (0-2) scored their lone touchdown in the fourth to cut the Panthers’ lead to 16-8.

Sophomore Daniel Mills sealed the win with an interception after Gaona’s second field goal. Iverson Toleafoa also had a sack, sophomore Isaac Swan had two pass deflections and Adan Lemus ran for 59 yards on 10 carries.

You can reach Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.