Stone Ridge Christian turns heads with NorCal Bowl play-in game rout

Jonathan Collazo limped into the Stone Ridge Christian locker room struggling to catch his breath.

Understandably so.

The Knights lost 1,900-yard running back Shane Casillas to a dislocated ankle on the opening drive of the game Saturday afternoon, instantly upping Collazo’s workload. He responded to the challenge, using his combination of power and pace to score four touchdown runs in a span of 9 minutes, 50 seconds to close the opening half.

The last came on a three-yard surge as time expired to give Stone Ridge a commanding 28-point lead at the break. The Knights never looked back, pulling away for an easy 70-21 victory over Mission of San Francisco in a Northern California Regional Bowl play-in game at Castle Field.

The victory advances Stone Ridge (12-1) to a NorCal Bowl game next week for the first time in school history. The Knights will learn their opponent and the location Sunday.

“I was gassed at halftime,” said Collazo, who rushed 17 times for a career-high 290 yards and five touchdowns. “I’d rolled an ankle and was starting to cramp a little bit. That last touchdown took a lot of effort, but I just kept thinking of Shane. I knew I needed to pick up the slack for him.”

Collazo wasn’t the only one to rise to the occasion in Casillas’ absence.

The Stone Ridge offense anticipated having to grind it out for four quarters against the biggest, fastest defensive unit it faced all season. The hope was that the Knights’ double-wing attack would eventually wear down the Bears.

It did – just far sooner than anyone would have anticipated.

Three plays after Casillas’ injury, Adam Hooker, who had nine carries for 74 yards, broke free for a 26-yard touchdown to open the scoring. It was the start of an almost perfect day for the Stone Ridge offense, which scored touchdowns on each of its first 10 possessions and racked up 515 rushing yards on 44 carries.

“That was unanticipated,” Knights coach Art DeJager said. “We figured it was going to be a physical, four-quarter game because of their size and speed. We knew it would be a battle up front, but we felt like if we stuck with it, it would take a toll. I never thought we’d be breaking some of those big runs that we did.”

The teams exchanged touchdowns on their first two possessions.

Mission (9-4) snapped Stone Ridge’s state record of 10 consecutive shutout victories on its opening possession as quarterback Niamey Harris ran the ball in on fourth and goal from the 1-yard line to tie the score at 7.

The Knights needed nine plays to respond as Austin Rees (12 carries for 103 yards, three TDs) punched in a three-yard touchdown. The Bears evened the score two plays later when Harris found Tyrese Johnson on a 49-yard touchdown pass. Johnson had five catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns.

Bryce Louters returned the ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a score, and the Stone Ridge defense followed with the first stop of the day as William Vander Woude sacked Harris and forced a fumble. Collazo began taking over the game two plays later, busting free for a 45-yard touchdown to give Stone Ridge a 27-13 lead.

“I think that was the turning point in the game,” Vander Woude said. “We knew whoever got the first stop was going to get a lot of momentum. Then we score right after the turnover, and you could see heads start to go down.

“We came in hoping for three yards a rush, but after the first couple series, we knew they were going to have a tough time slowing us down.”

Stone Ridge took advantage and broke open the game just before halftime.

Johnson caught a 20-yard scoring pass to trim Mission’s deficit to 27-21, but Stone Ridge barely batted an eye. Collazo broke a 35-yard touchdown, and after a Rees interception, busted free for a 53-yard score.

Sensing the game was at a turning point, the Knights went with an onside kick, which Austin Houweling recovered with 2:08 left in the half. Stone Ridge moved down the field in six plays with Collazo punching it into the end zone as time expired to make it 49-21 at intermission.

“An onside kick is always a roll of the dice,” DeJager said. “You don’t get it, and the other team can really turn the momentum with a short field. We felt like it was a chance to take the steam out of them, and it worked out.”

The Stone Ridge staff said that on film, Mission ran the ball roughly 68 percent of the time. So the Knights were caught a little off guard when the Bears ended up passing the ball 41 times with just 11 rushing plays. It took most of the first half, but Stone Ridge made the necessary adjustments.

Mission turned over the ball on downs at the Stone Ridge 20 on the opening possession of the second half. Collazo all but put away the game three plays later, breaking a 74-yard touchdown on his final carry.

The Knights’ defense allowed no points in the second half, and the only time Stone Ridge didn’t finish a drive offensively came on its final possession, when it assumed the victory formation at the Mission 1.

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 7:11 PM with the headline "Stone Ridge Christian turns heads with NorCal Bowl play-in game rout."