Sonora football pummels Orestimba in D-V semifinal

The Sonora High School football team will play for a Sac-Joaquin Section championship for the second consecutive year.

That much was clear by halftime of Friday night’s Division V semifinal with Orestimba.

The top-seeded Wildcats scored touchdowns on their first nine possessions and rushed for 467 yards in a 62-6 running-clock victory over No. 4 Orestimba.

Brett McCutchen, Nate Gookin and Kane Rodgers scored two touchdowns apiece, and the defense shackled the Warriors’ high-octane offense as the Wildcats advanced to next Saturday’s section final.

Sonora led 41-0 at halftime.

“It feels amazing,” said McCutchen, a transfer from Mariposa and an old adversary of Orestimba. “I’ve played this team the last three years, so I knew what they were capable of. I knew the people we have playing for us were a lot better physically and mentally. Mentally, we have not faced a team better than us this season.”

Sonora (11-1) has won 11 consecutive games, matching the run it had last fall in Division IV. Back then, the Wildcats were the decided underdog against eventual section and state champion Central Catholic.

This time around, they’ll command the odds. The Wildcats will face defending section champion Bear River, which gutted out a 31-21 victory over Capital Christian, Saturday at Elk Grove High School at 1 p.m.

“It’s hard. I don’t know how Roger does it every year, getting back to the section final the way they do,” Sonora coach Bryan Craig said, referring to Central Catholic coach and Sonora native Roger Canepa. “You put in a lot of hard work, and the kids put in a lot of hard work.

“This means a lot. These guys felt like last year was their opportunity to win that blue banner. They worked hard to get back and get another shot at it. Now we do.”

The Wildcats, who wore their menacing black uniforms and streamed into the stadium from atop the hill, put their full arsenal on display during a chilly night at Dunlavy Field.

Sam Page was 4 of 5 for 58 yards and two touchdowns – a 17-yard pop pass to Wyatt Faughnan and a 13-yard strike to Rodgers. Rodgers also had a two-yard touchdown run in the first quarter as Sonora surged to a 21-0 lead.

McCutchen led a fleet of Wildcat ball carriers with 101 yards on 12 carries. He scored on runs of 10 and 40 yards.

Gookin had 88 yards on 15 carries, including touchdown runs of nine and four yards. Faughnan finished with 94 yards, most of which came on option pitches.

Josh Harris capped the scoring with a 67-yard burst late in the third quarter.

“These guys are so fast off the football, and they were a better football team than us,” Orestimba coach Aaron Souza conceded. “We would have had to play flawlessly to beat them. These guys wanted to play for a section title and now they will, and you know what, they’ll probably win the section title.”

Sonora wasted little time asserting itself, delivering a knockout blow on the opening possession. Page sprinted 50 yards on the third play as the Wildcats scored in the first minute for the second consecutive week.

“Momentum is so important in this game,” Craig said. “If you can establish that momentum and keep it – and we did tonight – that’s half the battle.”

Orestimba (11-1), running on fumes after emotionally charged wins over rival Gustine and Hughson, had nothing behind its punches.

The Warriors managed just 67 total yards in the first half and turned over the ball twice. One of two quarterbacks in the Stanislaus District with 1,000 rushing yards, Joe Sheldon ran wild on Orestimba’s first 11 opponents but was bottled up by the Wildcats’ plug-and-play defense.

Sheldon was sacked six times. He finished his decorated prep career by going 11 of 25 for 141 yards and an interception.

Joe DeLaRosa tallied Orestimba’s only score on a 20-yard burst in the fourth quarter.

By then, the Orestimba coaching staff had come to terms with the obvious: The well had run dry.

The Warriors captivated a community on the West Side with a storybook season. Orestimba won the Battle for the Chief and a Southern League title on the same night, and then surprised Hughson for its first playoff victory.

All of that good will and good times bought them a date with the mighty Wildcats, but nothing more.

“There hasn’t been in our lifetime a team this good at Orestimba,” Souza said. “This season ends on paper. We will not play another game as a unit, but the heart and soul of this season will never die.”

Orestimba senior running back Austin Martins surpassed the 2,000-yard mark, though it wasn’t easy. He had just 17 yards on his first 12 carries but finished with a game-high 107 yards as Sonora started rotating in its reserves in the second quarter.

The quick start set the tone, McCutchen said.

“It just sets the mood right away,” he said. “It crushed their dreams and opened their eyes that we’re a lot better than them.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 5:16 AM with the headline "Sonora football pummels Orestimba in D-V semifinal."