Prep roundup: Oak Ridge late stop beats Granite Bay; Rocklin, Elk Grove, CB roll
The Sierra Foothill League is designed to bring out the best in teams, or they get run over.
On Friday night at Granite Bay, No. 5 Oak Ridge inched past the No. 4 Grizzlies 17-16 by stopping a winning 2-point conversion attempt in the final minute, and the Trojans headed back to El Dorado Hills on a winning track a week after falling at home to top-ranked Folsom.
Markus Hoffman, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound linebacker, burst through the line and tripped up Granite Bay quarterback McCade Long on the winning conversion attempt with less than a minute to play after Carson Perry-Smith caught a 75-yard touchdown from Nick Harris.
Oak Ridge was able to run out the clock to move to 6-1 on the season a year after finishing 3-7. Granite Bay dropped its second-successive SFL game and is 5-2 overall.
Maddox Varella had a touchdown pass and Justin Hall had a scoring run for Oak Ridge. Trojans coach Casey Taylor said he would have done the same thing that Granite Bay coach Joe Cattolico did — go for the win and not the tie.
“We had a great stop,” Taylor said. “Great game, great league. I told our guys we wouldn’t have won that game last year. We’ve come a long way.”
Three of the previous four meetings between Granite Bay and Oak Ridge were one-point games.
In other games:
▪ No. 1 Folsom rolled No. 16 Whitney in the SFL as Austin Mack had three first-half touchdown passes and Slade Wilson returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown for a 42-0 lead as the Bulldogs moved to 6-1.
▪ No. 2 Del Oro beat No. 6 Rocklin 30-20 in the SFL as Caden Pinnick tossed touchdowns of 89, 41 and 19 yards to Aaron Unfried, Tommy Poe and Jagger French, and Pinnick ran for a score for the Thunder (7-0). This was the annual Battle of the Shield game between the Placer County rivals to honor Matt Redding, a local police officer struck and killed by a drunken driver in 2005. Del Oro coach Mike Maben was a teammate of Redding’s at Del Oro.
▪ No. 9 Elk Grove beat No. 8 Sheldon 48-20 in the Delta League, attempting just one pass but rushing 49 times for 360 yards and seven scores — three of which were by Jeremiah Rosales, who went for 151 yards. Quarterback David Hale rushed eight times for 82 yards and two scores and Wayshawn Parker went for 62 yards and a touchdown as Elk Grove moved to 4-3 overall and 3-0 in league.
Elk Grove had six sacks, three by Lati Vaefaga. Jesiah Machado hit Scott Nixon 18 times for 205 yards and four touchdowns for Sheldon (5-3, 2-2).
▪ No. 10 Placer beat No. 25 Lincoln 35-14 in the Foothill Valley League behind running backs Kosta Aleksic, Baylor Kelley, Jaden Suggs and quarterback Joshua Craycraft to move to 7-0.
▪ No. 13 Christian Brothers beat Rio Americano 55-6 in the Capital Athletic League to move to 6-2 overall as William Littlejohn connected with Phillip Bell 10 times for 181 yards and three touchdowns, and Ezekiel Castex rushed 10 times for 184 yards and two scores.
▪ No. 14 Vista del Lago defeated Del Campo 35-14 in the CAL as Thomas Keegan rushed for scores of 1, 4, 6 and 19 yards to extend the Eagles’ winning streak to four. Vista overcame the loss of star quarterback Jonny Koett.
▪ No. 15 Casa Roble beat Rio Linda 47-0 in the Golden Empire League as Connor Campbell completed 9 of 11 passes for 233 yards and four touchdowns, two to Cole Owens. Daniel Renner rushed seven times for 70 yards and a score as the Rams moved to 6-1.
▪ No. 17 Sutter beat Center 23-20 in overtime in the PVL as Josiah Thompson kicked a 21-yard field goal to decide it. Sutter is 8-0.
▪ No. 18 Liberty Ranch beat Rosemont 35-15 in the Sierra Valley Conference as Arthur Draeger rushed 18 times for 150 yards and four touchdowns. Gavin O’Brien had 98 yards rushing and a score for Liberty Ranch (7-0, 2-0).
▪ No. 19 West Park beat Nevada Union 36-6 in the FVL and moved to 6-0 as Develle Barksdale passed for three touchdowns and ran for one.
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 3:46 PM.