Now, the Warriors can cross both off their list after tough defense and aggressive play on both ends of the floor guided them to a 76-47 win over the Jerseys in Tuesday night’s Class 3A regional quarterfinals at Sharyland Pioneer High School.
The win sends the Warriors to the Region IV-3A tournament for the first time since 2012 where they’ll face Goliad at 6 p.m. Friday at Seguin High School.
“We felt we were the better team since last year, but (Falfurrias) just beat us last year,” said Santa Rosa head coach Johnny Cipriano. “Our goal was to get to this point and face them again so that we could show who the better team was.”
That was apparent from the get-go as the Warriors led the entire way.
Like last Friday night’s area win over Odem, the Warriors’ feisty defense forced turnovers and got them out into the fast break for easy buckets, paving the way to a double-digit halftime lead.
Only on Tuesday night, Santa Rosa juniors Matt Garcia and Leo Lara were able to stay out of foul trouble and helped the Warriors keep their foot on the gas in the process.
Lara led the way with 20 for the Warriors, but Garcia was the spark plug for the Warriors early as his tough play underneath led to 16 points, including 12 in the first half.
“I’ve been wanting to play this game since we came off the court against Odem,” Garcia said. “I’ve been ready for Falfurrias ever since they beat us last year. I wanted to come back and whoop them because last year they made me cry. I just wanted to end their year like they ended ours and that’s what was on my mind the whole game.”
The Warriors opened up a 14-3 lead less than three minutes into the game and forced an early timeout from Jerseys coach Edmund Perez following back-to-back buckets from Lara.
The Jerseys answered with a 6-0 run and ended the quarter down just six.
Like all the Jersey runs throughout the night, they wouldn’t last and the Warriors went into the break up 11.
Fal showed some life, slicing the lead down to just five after starting the half on a 6-0 run, but the Warriors nipped that in the bud and silenced the Jersey crowd with a 14-0 run to close the quarter.
The Warriors never let up and led in the fourth by as many as 31.
Aside from Lara and Garcia, the Warriors had two more players in double figures.
Senior Manny Sanchez threw up 14 points off the bench and sank four treys, while point guard AB Losoya added 13 and three triples.
The Warriors don’t intend to lose focus now.
“We know we have work to do still,” Cipriano said. “One of our goals was regionals, but so is state. The guys have been saying state and we’ll give it our best shot. We’ll keep playing and hopefully execute like we did today.”