Prep football: San Marin shut out by Cardinal Newman

Now in its second season in the Redwood Empire Adobe, the San Marin High football team has found new league foe Cardinal Newman a tough nut to crack.

After Friday night’s 17-0 victory over host San Marin, the Cardinals have won both league meetings and taken all four games over the past two-plus decades, according to maxpreps.com.

“We made simple mistakes that we need to improve on,” said San Marin receiver Jack Golan, who was held to one first-half catch for 11 yards. “We were in it the whole game. Our defense did an outstanding job. Offense just needed to get something together. We couldn’t find a groove.”

The Mustangs (6-2, 1-2 Adobe) managed just 126 yards of offense after compiling 452 yards in last week’s win over Windsor.

San Marin was held to 28 yards on the ground on 26 carries and quarterback Daniel Rolovich was under duress for most of the game by Cardinal Newman (7-1, 3-0) as he was sacked four times.

Rolovich was held to 98 yards with his biggest pass play a 30-yarder to Ezekiel Gomez midway through the third quarter.

“Very frustrating,” said Gomez, who finished with two catches for 39 yards. “Defensively we were able to hold them, just weren’t able to get a groove on offense. (Rolovich) didn’t have a lot of time to give us any looks. When he did we were able to make some big plays, we just need to be more consistent and make the blocks.”

Despite managing just 64 yards of offense in the first half, the Mustangs were only down 7-0 at halftime.

The Cardinals broke the scoreless tie with just under 2 minutes until intermission when Carmine Guevara was able to avoid the sack, roll to his right and find a wide-open Jonah Bertoli for a 31-yard scoring connection on a fourth-and-five play.

San Marin gave the ball right back to Newman on its next play from scrimmage when Rolovich’s pass was tipped by a Cardinal Newman player and into the arms of Kordel Strane at the Mustangs’ 11-yard line.

The Mustangs were able to keep it a one-score game when they forced the Cardinals to try a 37-yard field goal that came up short just before the half ended.

After forcing Newman to punt on its first possession of the second half, it seemed like San Marin was seizing momentum when it was able to move from its own 30 into Newman territory.

Momentum swung quickly back to Newman’s side when the Mustangs were forced to punt after Rolovich was sacked on consecutive plays.

Strane was hit hard right after catching the punt, but was able to stay on his feet and motored 75 yards for a back-breaking 14-0 lead with 4:40 left in the third quarter.

“We made three mistakes,” San Marin coach Dom DiMare said. “It was a broken play that they threw a touchdown on, a punt return and a bad punt and they kick a field goal. In this league, you make three mistakes, they score three times. That’s the game. It’s who makes the least amount of mistakes win these games.”

San Marin, which allowed just 34 rushing yards and 141 total yards, closes out the regular season with road games against Vintage and Rancho Cotate.

The two league leaders, Cardinal Newman and Marin Catholic, square off next week in Santa Rosa.

Cardinal Newman 17, San Marin 0

Redwood Empire Adobe

Cardinal Newman 0 7 7 3 – 17

San Marin 0 0 0 0 – 0

SCORING SUMMARY

CN – Bertoli 31 pass from Guevara (Taylor kick)

CN – Strane 75 punt return (Taylor kick)

CN – Taylor 31 FG

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – CN, Malakai 12-17, Estrela 6-11, Bertoli 1-8, Guevara 5-(minus 2). Totals 24-34. SM, Reier 5-16, Keehn 10-16, Rolovich 8-(minus-4). Totals 23-28.

PASSING – CN, Guevara 9-14-0 107. SM, Rolovich 9-21-2 98.

RECEIVING – CN, Bertoli 3-48, Cargill 3-33, Matai 1-17, Strane 2-9. Totals 9-107. SM, Gomez 2-39, Means 3-32, Singleton 1-16, Golan 1-11, Keehn 1-1, Saysette 1-(minus-1). Totals 9-98.

Records – Cardinal Newman 7-1, 3-0. San Marin 6-2, 1-2.