LA VILLA — Someone forgot to tell the Santa Rosa Warriors not to spoil the La Villa Cardinals’ inaugural game on their new artificial turf field as the two teams renewed their Sugar Bowl rivalry Friday night.
The Warriors, boosted by a 33-point second quarter, cruised to a 46-12 non-district victory over the Cardinals on a rainy evening in La Villa.
Santa Rosa has enjoyed the upper hand in the Sugar Bowl series during the past decade. The Warriors downed the Cardinals 34-14 last year, so they retained the Sugar Bowl trophy under second-year Santa Rosa coach Hector Ayala.
“It’s good to win this one,” said Ayala, whose team improved to 1-2 on the season. “It’s the Sugar Bowl rivalry, so it’s good to keep the trophy.
“I think we executed real well tonight,” Ayala added. “That’s what I’m most happy about. We have young quarterbacks, and they both came out and saw the field well (with their passes) and moved the team. A game like this helped them a lot. We ran the ball well, too.”
The Warriors led 6-0 after one quarter and 39-0 at intermission. They took a 46-6 advantage into the final period.
Santa Rosa QB Jose Ruiz threw touchdown passes of 9 and 7 yards to Robby Bentley to make it 12-0 at the 11:14 mark of the second quarter.
That was just the start of the fireworks during the second period.
Santa Rosa’s Jose Diaz-Mendez raced 31 yards to the end zone to make it 18-0 before fellow running back Ryan Mesa scored on a 71-yard punt return and added scoring runs of 37 and 59 yards, giving his team a 39-0 halftime cushion.
Mesa led all rushers with 140 yards on 10 carries, all in the opening half. He didn’t play during the final two quarters as a precautionary measure, Ayala said.
Bentley caught a 69-yard TD pass from Ruiz with 11:16 showing in the third quarter as the lead became 46-0.
La Villa QB Rey Felix threw a 19-yard TD pass to Orlando Vallejo during the third period and a 35-yard TD pass to Manuel Solis with 5:31 remaining to account for the final score.