Rocklin adjusts in second half to beat Granite Bay in Sierra Foothill League clash

There's the basic blueprint for a football game, which fans see: offenses blocking, running and passing in an effort to move the ball up the field and into the end zone; defenses fighting off those blocks and chasing the quarterback, following the ball and gang tackling to keep the opposing offense out of said end zone. Then there is what Rocklin High School coach Jason Adams calls the "in games," with one team making an adjustment, followed by the opposing team adjusting to that adjustment. "That's what's fun," Adams said following the Thunder's 21-14 Sierra Foothill League victory over visiting Granite Bay on Friday night in front of a homecoming crowd. "We know what they're gonna do, and they know what we're gonna do, and then there's those in games and they'll make an adjustment before we do and we make the adjustment. The kids respond well." Rocklin (6-2 overall, 2-1 SFL) scored on its opening drive of the third quarter following a scoreless first half, added two touchdowns two minutes apart early in the fourth quarter and held off a quick-strike comeback attempt to beat the young Grizzlies (5-3, 0-3). "It's a good contest," Adams said. "Everybody got better. The fans got a great experience. It's a good win for our kids' homecoming." The Thunder, held to 35 total yards in the second quarter and unable to penetrate further than the Granite Bay 44-yard line, totaled 208 yards in the second half. Senior quarterback Joey Roberts passed for 147 yards in the second half on six completions. "The kids are prepared when we get them here, but sometimes you take a look at what the other guy's doing - they're doing this, they're doing that - then we gotta find a way to react to what they're doing," Adams said. "And (Granite Bay) did a great job preparing their guys. We really like our guys at the line of scrimmage, and we think we can move some people, and they made it hard for us to move them." Roberts threw a 31-yard pass to Gavin Correia on Rocklin's first play of the second half to spark an eight-play, 68-yard march that ended with Mason Silva's 3-yard touchdown plunge. Roberts connected with Silva for 32 yards on third and 20 and with Kaleb Larson for 10 yards to set up Silva's score. Adams said the Thunder has been consistent scoring on its first drive in the second half while not doing anything differently; well, they throw in maybe a wrinkle or two. "They're our plays, but we just maybe moved a chess piece here or there to maybe get an extra hat somewhere," he said. "They were putting an extra guy where we wanted to run. All right, well, we gotta get an extra guy there. Or we have to throw a pass where they're vacating a spot." After junior John Correa recorded one of his two second-half sacks to help stop Granite Bay's first try of the second half, Rocklin took the slow, steady route on a 16-play, 86-yard drive that bridged the third and fourth periods and ended with another 3-yard scoring run by Silva with 9:54 left. Larson intercepted Granite Bay quarterback McCade Long on the Grizzlies' first play, and though Larson's 38-yard pick six was nullified by a penalty (multiple yellow flags flew), Rocklin scored quickly on a 30-yard strike from Roberts to Kyle Hall. That gave the Thunder a 21-0 lead, but that wasn't all she wrote and the party wasn't over, as those game-clinching sayings and songs go. Granite Bay turned to 6-foot-5 sophomore slinger Nick Harris, whose first pass found junior Frank Cusano over the middle for a 40-yard touchdown with 4:05 left. Grizzlies junior William Walker recovered the onside kick, and Granite Bay drove 51 yards in 10 plays with Harris completing 6 of 8 passes, the last a 1-yard touchdown toss to Joseph Cattolico, a sophomore and one of several underclassmen playing up for the Grizzlies. Cattolico had four catches for 30 yards on the short drive. "We're playing good teams, and we're playing good teams with a lot of young guys playing for us," Grizzlies coach Joe Cattolico said. "There's some challenges inherent in that, but obviously we gotta find a way to make a couple more plays." Cattolico said Granite Bay is playing with "a lot of guys who, age-wise, should be playing JV football. But they're good players, and they're doing a good job. And we have some older kids who are doing a good job. We just have a really small senior class numerically. There's some challenge to that obviously, playing against this level of competition." Rocklin next plays host to Oak Ridge (7-1, 2-1) on Oct. 21. The Trojans buried Whitney 55-7 on Friday night. Granite Bay is host to Folsom (7-1, 3-0), which easily handled previously unbeaten Del Oro 34-7. Said Cattolico with a smile, "We got an easy one." ROCKLIN 21, GRANITE BAY 14 Granite Bay 0 0 0 14 – 14 Rocklin &emsp;&emsp; 0 0 7 14 – 21 Rocklin – Mason Silva 3 run (Logan Pandis kick) Rocklin – Silva 3 run (Pandis kick) Rocklin – Kyle Hall 30 pass from Joey Roberts (Pandis kick) GB – Frank Cusano 40 pass from Nick Harris (kick good) GB – Joseph Cattolico 1 pass from Harris (kick good)