Windsor will host #6 Granada on Saturday in NCS semifinals
As high school football games go, they don’t get any more exciting than Friday’s North Coast Section Division 2 quarterfinal clash with visiting Santa Rosa, as the Jaguars watched a 31-7 fourth-quarter cushion evaporate before regrouping to score a 38-37 overtime win.
“I was just in shock after the game,” Jags senior quarterback Kobe Roman said later. “We knew from the start that we’d need to run the ball well to beat them, and our line did a great job of blocking for us. We just didn’t expect to need overtime to get a win.”
The stunning finish pushed Windsor’s record to 8-3 and sets up a titanic NCS semifinal home clash against the #6 seeded Granada Matadors this Saturday, Nov. 26 in a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Granada (6-6) is coming off a 17-0 upset victory over #3 Concord on Saturday, and the Jags will no doubt need to crank up their ground game against a strong defensive unit.
“We know Granada has a big line so they’re going to be tough,” Roman noted. “I think we’ll have to find a way to beat them on the outside.”
Jags in a barnburner
The #2 seeded Jags were fresh off an opening round bye on Friday, while #10 ranked Santa Rosa had advanced with a 48-25 win over Northgate. Windsor ran roughshod over the Panthers in a 50-26 win in a regular season meeting a month earlier, but the visitors would not go quietly in this one.
The Jaguars’ stingy defense set the tone in the opening quarter, twice stopping Panther drives deep in Windsor territory. The Jags drew first blood midway through the period when Roman dived over from a yard out, and kicker Olin Piotter added the PAT boot for a 7-0 lead after one.
Santa Rosa took advantage of a short field to mount a drive early in the second quarter, culminating in a 6-yard scoring run to knot the game at 7-7. Moments later, senior running back Jackson Baughman busted loose on a 60-yard touchdown run to grab a 14-7 edge. Piotter later added a 29-yard field goal as Windsor took a 17-7 lead at the half.
The Jaguars continued to pound the ball effectively in the third quarter, with all-purpose man Jorgen Sarganis finding pay-dirt on a 20-yard burst to make it 24-7 at the end of three.
Windsor senior back David Escarcega gave his team a seemingly insurmountable lead early in the fourth on an 18-yard touchdown run, but it only served as a wake-up call for the slumbering Panthers.
Santa Rosa mounted a stirring comeback to score on their next three possessions, while also adding successful 2-point conversions after each touchdown. The Panthers silenced the crowd with scoring runs of 5 and 3 yards, with the dagger coming on a 65-yard lightening strike from quarterback Isaiah Steele to receiver Kalei Aukai with two minutes left to send it into overtime knotted at 31-all.
Each team would get the ball on the other’s 10-yard line.
“We knew once we got into OT that we’d probably only get one possession, so we had to score,” Roman said.
The Jaguars got the ball first, as Roman hit Baughman on a 5-yard scoring pass. The PAT kick was good and Windsor led 38-31. The Panthers would answer with a 5-yard touchdown run on their possession and elected to go for the win. But Windsor stuffed the ensuing try for the 2-point conversion by mere inches at the goal line to escape with a 38-37 victory.
The Jags finished with over 300 yards rushing for the game, led by Baughman (22-174 yards, 2 TDs), Escarcega (14-101), Sarganis (1 rushing TD) and Roman (50 yards rushing, TD, 1 passing TD).
