Santa Rosa is 0-4 against Rancho Cotate since November of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Santa Rosa Panthers will look to defend their home field against the Rancho Cotate Cougars at 7:00 p.m. Santa Rosa comes in on a streak of failing to score more than 12 points in their last three games, a trend the squad is of course eager to reverse.
Last Friday, Santa Rosa was beaten by Cardinal Newman 62-7. While losing is never fun, Santa Rosa can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 598th, while Cardinal Newman is ranked 100th).
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Rancho Cotate on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Montgomery out of the water with a 56-6 final score. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 28-6.
Rancho Cotate's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Geovanny Ortiz led the charge by rushing for 174 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 8.7 yards per carry. Ortiz was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 56 yards. Another player making a difference was Gio Martinez, who rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns on only five carries.
Santa Rosa's defeat was their third straight on the road, which dropped their overall record down to 2-7. Those losses could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 10.7 points per game. As for Rancho Cotate, they now have a winning record of 5-4.
Santa Rosa took a serious blow against Rancho Cotate in their previous matchup back in November of 2022, falling 49-3. Thankfully for Santa Rosa, Sailasa Vadrawale (who picked up 138 receiving yards and two touchdowns, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
