Down a ‘cyborg,’ Casa Roble topples Woodland with depth and defense in overtime thriller
Down its best player and then down three scores, Casa Roble High School on Friday night charged back to beat Woodland 35-29 in overtime in Yolo County.
The Rams have taken sole control of the competitive Golden Empire League, a conference they have won each season since joining it in 2018. The regular season is winding down and a showdown game looming in Orangevale next against Pioneer.
Casa Roble topped a tough Wolves team despite star receiver Cole Owens missing action due to an ankle injury sustained Wednesday in practice. The sophomore has 33 catches for 766 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season, tough numbers to replace.
“This kid’s a freaking cyborg, he’s unbelievable,” Rams coach Chris Horner said. “It’s like he’s half man, half robot. It’s unreal what the kid can do.”
Losing a player with that kind of production is huge for any team. However, it also allows for other players to step up and use it as an opportunity to show what they can do, and Horner challenged his team to respond. Daniel Renner did. He scored two touchdowns and a two-point conversion, and none of his efforts were bigger than his 15-yard walk-off on fourth and 4 in overtime to win it, a diving effort.
“My goodness that was amazing,” Horner said. “For him to have the awareness to stretch out and pop it inside the pylon. It was awesome.”
Having already made multiple key plays throughout the night, it was only right that he was the man on the game’s biggest play.
“I just knew I had it,” Renner said.
Another player who had to make adjustments with his favorite target was senior quarterback Jason Lindahl. With the majority of his completions, yards, and touchdowns coming from Owens, Lindahl had to change his game plan. The team decided to take advantage of the defensive front they were facing and attack from the ground.
“We studied the hell out of them,” Lindahl said of the Wolves defense.
The Rams finished with four rushing touchdowns and one passing. Lindahl ran one in on his own as well as Renner. Junior running back Josh Taylor led the team with two rushing touchdowns.
The biggest performance of the night was delivered by the Rams defense. Also having to adjust to the loss of Owens, freshman safety Elijah Huddle was brought up to the varsity squad to fill in at safety. After allowing 26 points in the first half, Casa Roble gave up just three the rest of the way.
“It was a musical chairs of who we were going to put in tonight until we found the right combination,” Horner said. “It was an amazing experience to watch the kids go down early, and then just believe in one another and pick each other up.”
Casa Roble is 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the GEL. A win over Pioneer would all but clinch a share of another GEL crown for the Rams.