Stone Ridge Christian rides defense to Sac-Joaquin Section crown

Art De Jager firmly believed defense would be the deciding factor in Saturday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII championship game.

It became all the more necessary when Stone Ridge Christian quarterback Luke Lange injured his knee on the first play from scrimmage.

Led by the play of Seth Stockton on the line and Shane Casillas in the secondary, the Knights responded to the challenge. Stone Ridge limited Elliot Christian to 60 total yards and zero points in the second half to rally for a 19-14 victory and the school’s first blue banner in any sport.

“Losing Luke was disastrous in our minds, but I’d preached to the guys all week that this game was going to come down to defense,” said De Jager, Stone Ridge’s coach. “I can’t say enough about the play of our defensive line, particularly Seth. They came to play and basically shut down what Elliot wanted to do.”

It was a tremendous regrouping for the Knights (11-2), who appeared to be in trouble when Lange exited the game in the second quarter.

Eagles quarterback Holden Butler hooked up with wideout David Lerma (five catches, 92 yards) for two touchdowns passes sandwiched around a Bailey Dahlhoff touchdown run to give Elliot Christian a 14-7 lead. An interception put the Eagles (10-2) right back in business at the Stone Ridge 43-yard line with 5:52 to play in the half.

The game turned on two holding calls.

The first came on a run that would have given Elliot the ball inside the Knights’ 20. The Eagles’ drive stalled from there, eventually turning it over on downs.

The second big hold came on the Elliot defense, extending a Stone Ridge drive and helping the Knights score just before halftime. Stone Ridge was looking at a fourth-and- 5 at the Eagles’ 29-yard line with under a minute to play in the half, but a hold away from the point of attack gave SRC a huge first down at the 16.

Dahlhoff (25 carries, 140 yards) punched it in from 15 yards out two plays later to trim the lead to 14-13 at intermission.

“We were pumped up at halftime,” Dahlhoff said. “We felt like we had them right where we wanted them. We thought we could wear them down in the second half, and if we had the lead going into the fourth quarter, we weren’t giving it back.”

Stone Ridge didn’t need to wait long to get the lead, striking in just five plays on the opening drive of the second half.

Dahlhoff and Casillas (5 carries, 69 yards) broke long runs, and Austin Rees put the Knights in front for the first time with a 1-yard plunge to make it 19-14.

The Stone Ridge defense made it stand up. Elliot’s vaunted run game was limited to 153 yards, including just 36 after the break. Butler, whose passing gave the Knights fits in the opening half, was just 3 of 10 for 24 yards with two interceptions after halftime.

Casillas had both of those, the second of which secured the title with 1:21 to play.

“I saw that their best receiver was running a drag on Bailey,” said Casillas, who was helped off of the field by a teammate. “I anticipated the throw was going to be off, and once it got tipped, I knew it was mine.

“My leg is killing me now, but during that last series I wasn’t feeling anything.”

This story was originally published November 29, 2014 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Stone Ridge Christian rides defense to Sac-Joaquin Section crown."