Rocklin tops Del Oro in SFL battle
Cummings, Pratt each score 2 TDs
ROCKLIN — Already guaranteed a berth in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, Del Oro High ignored the notion of playing for a tie. Quarterback Max Magleby threw for the win, and the Golden Eagles came up short for the second straight week Friday night. Rocklin tailback Jackson Cummings carried 25 times for 136 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner with 7:42 remaining to lead the Thunder past Del Oro 24-21. Rocklin (9-0, 4-0 SFL) clinched its first outright SFL crown, while the Eagles (7-2, 2-2 SFL) lost their second game in a row after falling to Woodcreek 16-9 last week. Del Oro tailback Bryce Pratt, who had a season-worst 20 yards on 11 carries in the first half, got things going in the third quarter. Pratt scored on an 11-yard run to cut the deficit to 17-14 on the Eagles’ opening drive of the second half and his 2-yard dive with 9:35 left in the fourth quarter gave Del Oro a 21-17 advantage, its first lead since the first quarter. Cummings’ second touchdown put the Thunder back on top, and the Eagles turned the ball over on downs before earning it back with a strong defensive stand of their own. Del Oro took over near midfield with 2:45 left in the game. Magleby completed a 26-yard pass to tight end Spencer Butterfield and Pratt’s 12-yard run on the next play gave the Eagles a first down at the 16-yard line. A short run and a penalty later, Magleby’s third-and-10 pass was tipped incomplete. With 1:09 remaining, Del Oro opted not to try a field goal. Kicker Ian Scott had missed badly on a 48-yard attempt with three seconds left in the first half after booting the game’s opening kickoff out of bounds twice. The natural grass was also slippery from second-half rain. “Ian’s a good kicker but he kind of struggled,” head coach Casey Taylor said. “The field wasn’t great and we just felt as a staff we didn’t want to put it on him. We felt we had a good play called.” Magleby’s pass to the left corner of the end zone fell incomplete, over the head of leaping wide receiver Freddie Cargile. “It’s really slippery out here,” Magleby said. “It’s hard to kick, and we were confident in our throwing. It was there. We had it. We could have won, but it’s just those little things you look back on.” The Eagles will also look back on a bad break late in the first half. Trailing 17-7 with 45 seconds left, Magleby threw a pass downfield on fourth-and-2 from the 42. Shoichi Martinson tipped the pass in the air to teammate Adrian Williams, who raced down the sideline and was tackled inside the 5. An official’s inadvertent whistle when the ball was tipped forced Del Oro to replay the down. “We got screwed,” Williams said. “That’s it. I don’t know what that was. They shouldn’t have blown a whistle until the ball dropped, until it hit the ground.” Magleby connected with the junior tight end again on the next play, but the Eagles failed to get inside the 20 and a holding penalty backed them up to the 30, where Scott missed the field goal. “You work your butt off to get all the way down there and then you get a bad call,” Magleby said. “It definitely takes away your momentum and frustrates you, and you can’t work well when you’re frustrated. Everything just falls apart from there.” Williams caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Magleby in the first quarter to put the Eagles ahead 7-3 after Vincent Barrow’s 20-yard field goal got the Thunder on the board on their opening possession. Pratt finished with 135 yards and two scores on 32 carries, struggling again on the road. Thunder quarterback Jimmy Laughrea scored a touchdown on a 2-yard scamper in the second quarter to give Rocklin a 10-7 lead. Del Oro wraps up the regular season at Oakmont next week, while Rocklin travels to Roseville. “We wanted to win league,” Taylor said. “It was a huge game for us. We’ve faced a lot of adversity on the road. We’re definitely disappointed, but we have an opportunity to beat Oakmont and hopefully be a 5 or 6 seed. We’re two of three plays from being 9-0 and two or three plays from being 5-4, but we feel we can make some noise in the playoffs. We’ll have one home game for sure.”
Junior varsity Quarterback Bobby Heatherington passed for two touchdowns and Del Oro routed Rocklin 41-6. Nick O’Sullivan ran 30 yards on the first play from scrimmage and Russell Smith carried 22 yards for a touchdown seconds later. Heatherington threw first-half scoring strikes of 19 yards to Alex Bertrando and 15 yards to Blake Covey. O’Sullivan added a 1-yard touchdown dive and the Eagles (9-0, 4-0 SFL) led 27-0 at halftime. Kyle Anderson scored on a 60-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. Ashwin Cardenas recovered a fumble in the end zone for Del Oro’s final touchdown, his first career touchdown.
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I understand Del Oro had a first and goal at the three nullified by an "inadvertent" whistle. Can't the Sac/San Joaquin CIF provide game officials who aren't refugees from The Keystone Kops (at least for the championship games)?
Van;
If true, that's sickening....and the second week in a row that the "stripes" played a major part in their loss. That's ugly!
Great game. Tough loss for DO but a good win for Rock. It was a bad break on the whistle but that is why they use the word inadvertent. It was a mistake that happened when the ball was tipped, not when the kid got to the 5.
The head officiating arbiter was at the game. The stripes did a good job for the most part, especially in an emotional atmosphere.
I am a Rocklin fan. I think the concept that they threw everything out the window because they were qualified for the playoffs is incorrect. There was pride on the line. There was continued dominance on the line. There are now ramifications on seeding both in Sections and at State if either team is lucky enough to get there. Del Oro played their hearts out.
Both teams played well. The officials did not dominate the game and did a good job keeping everything in check. But an unfortunate inadvertent whistle for sure.
Well, here we are again....... Del Oro goes down for the second week in a row, and wouldn't you know it, the players, coaches, and fans are putting the blame on the refs again. Last week it was "BS" according to DO players. This week it's, "We got screwed".
Come on DO, I thought you were better than that. Bad calls & bad breaks are part of every game in every sport. The good teams overcome and conquer. The bad teams don't - then blame and whine about it after.
DO had lead in the 4th quarter and could not hold it. Then, DO had the ball at the Rocklin 16 yard line, down by 3, with over 2 mins to go in the game. A championship team wins that game. The also-ran makes excuses for why they didn't.
DO, there is still a lot of season left to play. Re-group and re-focus over the next two weeks, and be ready to play when the playoffs begin.
Good luck to both schools.
Officiating is critical in close, hard-fought games and it is appropriate to object to incompetent officiating (Mr. fredthehillman would go ballistic if his home team got zebraed). Granted, large numbers of games played in the Sac/San Joaquin CIF are not affected by officiating because of the wide disparity between the contending teams (as reflected in the numerous 40+ point margins). Of course, if Del Oro were a bad team then we wouldn't be discussing this - they would be routed by their opponents. However, even they cannot defeat top opponents when they have points taken off the board by phantom whistles or drives continually disrupted by officials who don't seem to know that low blocks are legal within two yards of the line of scrimmage. Fumbles, interceptions and poor play calling are part of the game and are the responsibility of the offending team - incompetent officials are the joker in the deck. With the playoffs coming up, officiating will be even more critical with the likelihood of a number of close games and the stakes involved. The CIF need to monitor officials more closely (by reviewing game film as the NFL does) and either re-train the incompetents or get rid of the incorrigibles.
Van, it's not worth arguing with fredthehillman cause your exactly right if it was his Placer boys that got screwed 2 weeks in a row I would bet my life he would have a different take. It's amazing how if your the beneficiary of garbage refs than it didn't help you win by 3 points as SFLrocks states. But if it was your team that had a sure TD taken off the board than I bet your singing a different song. By the way, the TE wouldn't have been tackled at the 5 if not for the inadvertent whistle. He let up cause he heard the whistle being blown so it would have been a TD period! Just plain and simple can't happen in a league title game! Whether or not Del Oro won or lost that can't happen. I know I'd be sick if it was my team or not.
van & teddymac,
Where was the poor officiating when DO gave up their 4th quarter lead?? Are we also to guess that the refs kept DO from getting any points with a 1st and 10 at the Rocklin 16 yard line with 2 mins left in the game??
The "questionable" and or inadvertent calls took place in the first half. Get over your crying, and focus on what really cost DO the game......the lack of plays made in the 4th quarter. No points were "taken off" the scoreboard in the 4th quarter. The only missing points in crunch time were the ones DO failed to score to get the win.
Two weeks in a row DO had the lead in the 4th quarter or was down by a point, and could not finish to get the win. I stand by what I said.........Championship teams win close games (Rocklin), and beat teams they are clearly better than (Woodcreek) - losers and also-rans do not.
Which is DO going to be??
I don't root against DO or Rocklin, I just see a pattern developing of losing close games, then blaming it on the refs. Look in the mirror first.