Football: Casa Grande grinds out ugly 14-10 win over Tamalpais

Casa Grande grinded out an ugly 14-10 win over Tamalpais on Thursday night in Petaluma, avoiding a late-season stumble and staying unbeaten in the Redwood Empire Conference Valley division behind a strong defensive effort and a clutch go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

After Tam (2-6, 2-2) took its first and only lead of the game early in the fourth quarter, the Gauchos (6-2, 4-0) responded immediately on their following drive, taking the lead for good on a 26-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Joey Cerda to Brady Laubscher, who had both of Casa’s touchdowns in the game. Max Drumm then sealed the win with an interception with 20 seconds left.

Takeaways

The Gauchos wasted no time in jumping out to an early lead as starting quarterback Danny Mercado connected with Laubscher for a 31-yard score on fourth and long to cap the first drive of the game. But from there, the first half devolved into a penalty-riddled affair that kept either team from finding any rhythm on offense. Tam was flagged for 11 penalties in the game, seven of which came in the first half, while Casa was called for six — four in the first half.

After its opening scoring drive, Casa ended the first half with four straight turnovers on downs and an interception, but still headed to the break leading 7-0 thanks to a stellar defensive effort. Tam managed just 50 yards of offensive by halftime and saw its first-half possessions ended in a punt, turnover on downs, punt, fumble and another punt.

But the momentum swung in Tam’s favor in the third quarter. Mercado had exited the game early in the second quarter with what appeared to be an injury to his right elbow after he was hit on his throwing arm trying to complete a pass. He spent most of the second quarter on the sideline getting it worked on by trainers and throwing passes to teammates to test his pain. He ultimately reentered the game in the second half, but his first play — and the Gauchos’ only offensive play of the third quarter — went for a safety that got Tam on the board 7-2 with four minutes left in the frame.

Tam then took the lead on its ensuing possession, scoring their lone touchdown on a short run from Ethan Koo to open the fourth quarter. The touchdown was set up by a 23-yard completion to star receiver Timo Ural — their longest play of the game to that point — that put the Red-tailed Hawks at Casa’s goal line.

Suddenly trailing 10-7 and with their quarterback battling an injury, the Gauchos regained their rhythm on offense and retook the lead on a nine-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Cerda’s touchdown pass to Laubscher. Cerda took a short pitch from Mercado and lofted his throw his in the air to Laubscher, who hauled it in and dove across the goal line to make it 14-10 with 8:26 left to play.

Casa was able to force a quick three-and-out but then had to punt back to Tam with 1:30 left in the game. The Red-tailed Hawks were able to pick up a first down, but Drumm’s interception on fourth and 10 put an end to the possible go-ahead drive.

Mercado finished 9-of-18 passing for 104 yards and ran for 38 of his 54 yards in the second half. Ronan Curley led the rushing attack with 76 yards on 20 carries. Defensively, the Gauchos had six sacks in the game, two each from Franco Bernardini and William Zell, while Bernardini joined Drumm with a takeaway as he also recovered a fumble.

Key play

Cerda’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Laubscher was undoubtedly the play of the game. It capped the Gauchos’ best possession of the second half and came with the game on the line.

Quotable

“A win is a win. Sometimes you’ve got to claw through them and fight through adversity. We talked about at halftime that sometimes adversity is a good thing and you see what you’re about, your toughness. We had what we felt like was a good week of practice, but it was a short week. Playing on Thursday is already adversity. So there’s that, and then you gotta focus on Tam, who beat us in the playoffs last year, so now we’re talking about that. So, a lot of mental stuff. Didn’t play the cleanest of first halves offensively, and then obviously the second half, you give them two points on a poor played punt and then we run that counter play on the goal line and that equals two points. But the guys showed that they can fight through it. It’s a tough one for us but we’ll take the win.” — Casa Grande head coach John Antonio.