Sutter reigns supreme in the rain, dethroning Casa Roble for Golden Empire League title
Just as the rain started to let up a bit near the end of the game, Sutter head coach Ryan Reynolds had another kind of shower coming his way.
Seconds after Sutter quarterback Braden Scritchfield took the final victory knee, Reynolds was doused with a water cooler bath from his Husky players on the sideline, a reward for as significant a win as Sutter has had all season.
“It was freezing cold,” Reynolds said. “But I’ll take it 10 out of 10 times.”
The Huskies withstood the rain and the reigning Sac-Joaquin Section champion Casa Roble Rams on Friday in Orangevale with a 42-21 win that sealed the outright Golden Empire League championship for the Huskies.
While the rain fell heavily from the sky over most of the first three quarters of Friday’s league-deciding contest, Sutter controlled the ground game with the duo of Marcus Meras and Dominic Souza. Meras ran for fourth-quarter scores of 3 and 30 yards and caught a 21 yard touchdown pass at the end of the first half. Souza accounted for Sutter’s first two scores, including a 77-yard run on the Huskies’ opening drive and a 24-yard run at the end of the first quarter that set the pace.
Reynolds marveled at the physicality of his team’s run attack.
“I thought we’re gonna have to throw the ball on them more than we did,” Reynolds said. “Because they’re (Casa Roble) huge up front and talented. Our kids played hard. They handled them. We won with technique and deception.”
After years of success in the Northern Section, Sutter joined the Sac-Joaquin Section in 2022 and made an instant splash on the gridiron. The Huskies captured the Pioneer Valley League championship in its first year in the section and have reached the section semifinals in each of the past two seasons.
Casa Roble had laid claim to the past two GEL championships. But Sutter will raise the banner in their first year in the league after the section’s realignment.
“It means everything, because we’ve been bouncing from league to league,” Meras said. “So, it’s good to get that championship.”
After Souza’s 77-yard score opened the game, Casa responded with a 22-yard TD pass from Aidan Lopez to Elijah Huddle to make it 7-7. Huddle, a Sacramento State commit, was back in his first game since Aug. 30 after missing time due to injury.
Souza’s second touchdown of the first quarter made it 13-7, Huskies. Casa freshman Dunedin Tupou scored on a 4-yard run to retie the game at 13 with 4:31 left in the first half.
Scritchfield then faked two handoffs and found Meras all alone in the end zone for a 21-yard score to take a 19-13 lead into halftime.
Josiah Thompson booted a 30-yard field goal to extend the Huskies’ lead to 22-13 at the 6:34 mark of the third quarter. After Sutter’s Angel’e Uribe recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Scritchfield ran in a short score to make it 28-13 less than a minute later.
The Rams closed the third quarter on a 31-yard connection from Lopez to Connor Campbell on fourth down to bring it back to a one-possession game at 28-21.
But Sutter’s run game proved too much for the Rams as Meras scored twice in the fourth to seal the Huskies’ win.
“Our offense came out really hot, explosive,” Meras said. “Our defense really helped us with getting the ball in a good position. Both sides balanced each other out, and it was really nice to play like that.”
The Sac-Joaquin Section playoff brackets will be released this weekend. Both Sutter (9-1) and Casa Roble (6-4) will vie for a Division V banner starting next Friday. With this week’s win, Sutter will likely earn a first-round bye. The Huskies and the Rams may very well see each other again in the postseason.
Nick Pecoraro is a sports journalist and host of “Premier Preps with Nick Pecoraro,” a weekly prep show available on YouTube that recaps games and teams in the Sacramento area each week. Find it at youtube.com/@PremierPreps.