Maria Carrillo stayed perfect in league play with another victory Friday night, beating Santa Rosa 41-26 to improve to 6-2 overall and 3-0 in the Redwood Empire Conference’s Bay division.

Overall, it’s the fourth straight victory for the Pumas, who have scored at least 30 points in each of those contests.

How it happened

It began on the first play from scrimmage. Carrillo mishandled the kickoff return and got pinned inside the five-yard line, but Cooper Bluestone took the first snap and passed the ball to Estefan Ramirez — who promptly ran it in for a 96-yard touchdown. It would be the first of three scoring connections on the night for the QB-receiver duo.Santa Rosa (3-5, 0-3) appeared to answer immediately with Israel Gomez-Noriega’s 40-yard strike to JP Stephenson, but it was called back due to holding. The Panthers were forced to punt, but their defense held Carrillo to a three and out as well.

The Panthers broke through when Logan Bayao punched it in from a couple yards out on the next possession. Santa Rosa’s ground attack was impressive without star Rashai Thompson, who was out with an injury.

Bayao totaled 14 carries for 95 yards. Owen Nojima had 10 carries for 48 yards, and Andres Nandallapa went off for 162 yards on 21 carries and three TDs.

Carrillo’s offense, however, continued to find Ramirez, who finished with seven catches, 245 yards receiving and three touchdowns. He also had a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown late in the second quarter.

It also helped that Bluestone put together an efficient night. He finished 8-of-10 passing for 297 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing three times for 20 yards and a score.

With the score 7-6 Pumas after the opening frame, a back-and-forth second quarter saw Carrillo seize the momentum late in the first half with a pair of touchdowns (and a Ryan Braga interception on defense) to go into the break up 28-12.

The Panthers closed the gap to eight points with just over eight minutes to play, but Bluestone’s rushing touchdown with 6:21 left iced it.

Key play

The punt return touchdown from Ramirez toward the end of the first half really gave the Pumas clear-cut momentum, especially since he also scored on the Pumas’ previous series.

He caught the punt at Carrillo’s 40-yard line and took a few steps to the right, where he was met by a few Panther defenders. He then cut back inside, getting away from another would-be tackler, and switched the field, then turned on the jets — and the rest was history.

Quotable

“Offensively, I was pleased with how we handled it. We got a lead and our mindset was that we just wanted to control the tempo … that’s been a big point of emphasis for us over the past couple of weeks — you need to maintain your performance throughout the game no matter the situation. Our guys did a good job of maintaining that intensity and focus.” — Maria Carrillo head coach Jay Higgins.

“I’m so proud of our team. It was a shootout, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, but in the end our defense stepped up and we had a great win.” — Ramirez

Takeaways

When Carrillo’s offense truly gets going, it’s hard to stop.

In their four-game win streak, the Pumas have scored 37, 60, 30 and 41 points, an average of just over 40 points a game.

Bluestone and Ramirez has been one of the top duos in the county in recent weeks, with Ramirez catapulting himself into the conversation of one of the best players in the area. Over the past four games, he has 469 yards receiving with 14 total touchdowns. Their offense is clicking, no doubt about it.

The next step for Carrillo is defensive consistency. Over those four games, they’ve given up an average of just under 30 points per game after allowing a 21-point average over the season’s first four contests. If they want to potentially win the league and make a deep playoff run, the defense has to shore things up.

Santa Rosa, on the other hand, looked to be just fine with star back Thompson on the shelf with an injury. The trio of Nandallapa, Nojima and Bayao was giving Carrillo fits in the inside as they combined for 305 yards and four touchdowns.

In plenty of games this season, the Panthers have been one play away from either taking the lead or being back in the game, and that was the case Friday night. They brought the deficit to eight with about eight minutes to go, but just couldn’t get the one stop they needed. That, plus a blocked extra point on their first touchdown that saw them playing from behind, proved significant in the outcome. Nonetheless, Santa Rosa has pieces that can do damage — they just need to make that one extra play.

Up next

Carrillo is at home next Friday to take on Ukiah (4-3, 2-0), while Santa Rosa heads to Analy (5-3, 1-2).