By: Krissy Hetherington
To start the first round of the postseason, Redwood (10-1, 4-1) was seeded No. 3 and handily defeated Atascadero (3-8, 1-2), a No. 14 seed.
Seven different players found the endzone with one touchdown a piece leading the team to a 49-6 victory over the Greyhounds for Redwood’s first playoff win since 2014.
“I think it was a total team effort both offensively and defensively…in the playoffs you gotta be able to stop the run and run the ball and I think we accomplished that tonight,” Head Coach Kevin Scharton said.
To start the game, Atasadero received first but were forced to punt. Following this, James Richardson led a run that allowed Aram Babagian to surge into the endzone for a 4-yard touchdown run on the next play.
Toward the end of the quarter, Atascadero made up ground getting within 5 yards of the endzone but were not able to finish with a score.
Hudson Walker led the defense in four big stops to take over the ball on the 2-yard line.
After a run by Diamond Davis, reception by Christian Roldan and rush from Caden Shafer, James Richardson capped off the next possession with a 4-yard touchdown run 18 seconds into the second quarter.
A few plays later and turnover on downs by the Greyhounds, Redwood found the goal again. Ryan Rios connected with Sam Olson on a 17-yard pass to the far left side of the endzone. After the kick was good by Reid Terry, the score stood at 20-0.
By the end of the half, Redwood was able to score one final time on a 19-yard connection with Roldan who walked the ball into the endzone.
At halftime, Redwood had already rushed for 169 yards and passed for 136 yards. Roldan led with 62 yards between three catches as Davis led with 72 yards rushed.
Coming out of halftime, Atascadero acted first, scoring a touchdown on a quarterback sneak, but Redwood was able to block the PAT.
The Rangers then picked up two rushes from Richardson and Davis that allowed Shafer to find an opening on the left side in the following play. His easy 31-yard run and Reid Terry’s kick made the score 35-6 at that point.
At the very end of the quarter, Marcus Correia picked up a sack deep in Redwood’s territory and recovered the fumble to run it for 15 more yards to the 5-yard line.
To start the fourth quarter, Julius Martinez found the endzone and finished the possession with a 2-yard touchdown.
After controlling the ball most of the game, Redwood finished out the game on a running clock with a 9-yard gain on a keeper from William Hernandez. Spencer Gilbreath capped off the game with a 1-yard touchdown rush.
Offensively, Redwood totaled 294 yards between 31 carries. Shafer counted for 81 yards with only five touches and Davis led with 102 rushing yards. Rios completed 11 of 16 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns.
Defense shut down the Greyhounds by limiting them to 180 yards total and allowing only three of their 26 attempts to gain 10 yards or more.
Scharton believed the win came from “Defensively getting countless stops and our running game, we have three backs that run the ball really hard and our offensive line were able to follow the rules and create lots of lanes for our running backs.”
Next up, Redwood will face No. 6, St. Joseph (8-3) in the Mineral King Bowl at 7pm for Quarterfinals.
Long-time head coach at Redwood, John Yavasile, has been around many different teams and compositions of players and coaches but sees something special in this year’s group.
“I think the big factor is they play such good defense, Hudson is awesome on defense, tight end [Sam Olson] is amazing, quarterback [Rios] is a good thrower, you have numbers and that depth….a school like St. Joseph comes in and they don’t have that many players but they’re a really good team because they’re a private school,” Yavasile said. “But a team like [Redwood] could wear them down, if you can get the lead and run the ball on them, then you can wear them out.”