ROHNERT PARK – In a battle of schools from neighboring towns that aren’t really true rivals since each plays in a different league, host Rancho Cotate (9-3) bolted out to a 21-6 first quarter lead before the North Bay League co-runners-up held off Sonoma County League second-place Petaluma 35-28 in CIF North Coast Section Division III quarterfinal thriller.
Despite the big early lead the game was in doubt until 6-2, 185-pound Louisville-bound Rancho Cotate senior wide receiver Chris Taylor-Yamanoha pulled in an 8-yard pass off his shoestrings from senior quarterback Gunner Mefferd on fourth-and-six with just over a minute remaining on the Petaluma 42-yard line. From there Mefferd took two knees and the clock ran out.
“That was a great play by Chris,” Rancho Cotate Coach Ed Conroy remarked. “Not only did he have to dig it out but he was short of the marker and had to lunge for the first down.”
Had Rancho Cotate not converted they would have given it back on downs and who knows what Petaluma senior quarterback Brendan White might have done even with not much clock to work with. White played his heart out but despite his heroics the no-quit Trojans still could not overcome the early deficit.
The 6-1, 190-pound White, who runs like a fullback but has halfback speed, carried 25 times for 229 yards and two touchdowns.
Rancho Cotate not only got a solid performance from Taylor-Yamanoha, but the senior running back duo of Danny Shelton and Moziah Ward had some pretty impressive numbers running the ball.
Each had nine carries with Sheldon gaining 139 yards with two touchdowns on runs of 68 and 38 yards. The crafty and elusive Ward had 133 yard with two TDs, including a 30-yarder.
Petaluma (8-4) struck first. After kicking off and then holding the Cougars three-and-out the Trojans went on the first of several long drives and scored when Lucas Dentoni went in on a 1-yard plunge. The score culminated a 98-yard drive in which White had a 71-yard run.
The hosts came right back and in two plays Ward went four yards to pay dirt after setting it up with a 54-yard run.
Rancho Cotate then took a lead it would not relinquish on the most dazzling play in a game filled with big plays. After a Petaluma punt Rancho Cotate got the ball at its own 47-yard line. On the first play Mefferd found Taylor-Yamanoha in the left flat, and the Cougars star dodged at least five tacklers and then danced his way down the sidelines before turning on the jets for a 53-yard touchdown reception.
Mefferd did not have his best performance but the running game’s big plays and the efforts of Taylor-Yamanoha made up for it. The Cougars signal-caller only completed three passes for 84 yards with Yamanoha getting the long TD pass and the fourth down deal sealer.
The other scores for Petaluma came on a 37-yard run by Conor Richardson and a 30-yard field goal by Isaiah Blomgren.
Rancho Cotate may have had a 28-18 lead at halftime but after two quarters they had only run 12 plays to 44 for Petaluma. After three quarters the score was the same but the Cougars had only run 15 plays to 66 for the Trojans. It evened out a bit in the fourth quarter but Petaluma still finished with 78 plays to 35 for Rancho Cotate.
“I wish we had played better, but we hurt ourselves by giving some stuff up on defense and White was hard to defend, but we won the game and that’s the bigger goal, win and move on,” Conroy said.
Moving on means No. 3 seed Rancho Cotate now meets another Sonoma County League team and that’s No. 2 seed and league champion Analy-Sebastopol next Friday night at Santa Rosa High. Analy was a 38-22 winner over El Cerrito.
