Rangers football team appears headed for CIF playoffs

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Despite losing last week, the Santa Rosa Academy football team appears to have clinched a CIF playoff spot heading into Thursday’s regular-season finale – a challenging contest at first-place Trinity Classical Academy of Valencia.

The Rangers lost a 51-24 decision to Webb Saturday, suffering their first loss of the Cottonwood League season. But Webb remains a game behind the 3-1 Rangers at 2-2, as is Silver Valley. Webb plays at Silver Valley, so the winner of that game will finish 3-2, meaning that team would join 4-0 Trinity and Santa Rosa Academy as playoff entrants whether the Rangers win or lose.

Sound confusing? Not really. Besides, the main focus of the Rangers is beating Trinity on the road in Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. game.

Santa Rosa Academy will have to cut down on turnovers to have a chance at beating the Knights. SRA quarterbacks threw 4 interceptions last week – 2 each by Jacob Goode and Andrew Sharp. Webb led 30-14 at halftime and blew the game open with 14 more points in the third quarter and 7 in the fourth.

Goode and Sharp each threw a touchdown pass to receivers Chris Ramirez and Aaron Quesada. Running back Ezekiel Thralls scored the only other Ranger touchdown. Goode passed for 104 yards and rushed for 100. Ramirez caught 6 passes for 81 yards and Quesada caught 5 for 56.

CIF Southern Section playoff pairings will be announced on Sunday.