Saturday night’s CIF NorCal Division 2-A Championship game was deja vu for the Wilcox Chargers and Head Coach Paul Rosa. Three years ago in the CIF State Championship game, the Chargers were robbed of a game-icing, pick-six touchdown by a flag for defensive holding that should have never been thrown.
This time around, a delay of game call with seven seconds remaining pushed the Chargers’ game-winning field goal attempt back from 41 yards to 46 yards. In high school football, that’s equivalent to an NFL kick being pushed from about 52 yards to 57.
While it’s no guarantee the field goal would have been successful at the shorter distance, senior kicker Armando Rodriguez had already hit field goals from 36 and 46 earlier in the game. The latter of which had just enough distance.
The Wilcox sideline was irate, believing the play clock should have been reset prior to the play and that there should not have been a delay of game. Trailing 28-27, the eventual 46-yard attempt would be no good.
Even a neutral observer will argue that the players on the field should decide the game, and in this case, it wasn’t a holding call or a pass interference that denied an obvious opportunity to score; it was a delay of the game right before the snap of a win-or-lose field goal attempt.
It’s quite unfortunate that such a well-played game, featuring a pair of superstars who shined from start to finish, ended with all the talk centered around the referees.
Brayden Rosa for the Chargers and Braeden Ward for the Twelve Bridges Raging Rhinos were in the high school football version of a heavyweight fight. The two tailbacks were exchanging blows each time they got the ball.
After Twelve Bridges marched down and scored a touchdown to take the lead on the first drive of the second half (a drive in which Rosa seemingly made every tackle), Rosa took the first snap of the ensuing Wilcox drive and ran it 81 yards for a Chargers go-ahead touchdown.
The two tailbacks were absolutely phenomenal. Sadly, though, this game will be forever mired in officiating controversy instead of talking about how well both teams played.
Even Twelve Bridges supporters are likely to admit there were way too many flags thrown in the game. Seemingly, every other play had a yellow flag on the ground, multiple occasions back-to-back plays had flags thrown.
Rosa was called for a “late hit out of bounds” when the ball carrier never hit the ground. All Rosa did was hold on tight to the runner in a bear hug. It was actually a good sportsmanship play, as Rosa did not cross the line. Yet the officials called the phantom penalty anyway.
On the positive side for the Chargers, they have young players who shined in this game and will be returning next season. Two-way star Elijah Vallejo will be back for his junior year, Jeremiah Arevalos, who had two interceptions in the CCS Championship win, will return, two-way player Gilbert Padilla will also be back. Not to mention, quarterback Kai Imahara will still only be a junior in 2025.
Key seniors who shined Saturday night aside from Rosa were tight end Davion Coleman. As a pass catcher, Coleman caught a huge ball over the middle and ran 40-plus yards after the catch to set up Rosa’s first touchdown.
Coleman also had a huge end-around run on a critical fourth down play. Defensive end Adam Kenney brought consistent pressure on the Twelve Bridges quarterback.
